canucket

Posted on June 10, 2006 by Arthur

canucket
n 1. A typical, unique (or specific) Canadian thing, object, trait, custom or behaviour.

Ex. John is holding a canucket in his hand.

Origin: Canucket is a mashup of the words ‘canuck’ and ‘nugget’ and directly implies something specifically Canadian. For example, ‘hockey’ is a canucket (as most Canadians would agree that hockey is a Canadian invention. People of Dutch origin may not agree though). The typical bi-langual packaging of products (food products) is a ‘canucket’ too. However, poutine is not a canucket because it is obviously something that most Canadians have never heard of (yet)1, 2. Also: French Canadians often use the French version of the word ‘canucket’, which is ‘canuquètte’.

1 Poutine is a canucket.
2 Blackened. If you really need to read that, use a highlighting marker on your LCD or CRT screen.

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10 Responses to canucket

  1. Marian says:
    June 17, 2006 at 2:54 pm AST

    I’m a Canadian and I’ve heard of poutine. I think most Canadians have heard of it, haven’t they? Even my husband who is from deeply Anglophone Oshawa Ontario has heard of poutine. I have to say I’ve never heard of a Canucket though (until now that is). Anyway, I think poutine is definitely a Canucket. It’s like Maurice Richard or saying: “eh?” As in, Maurice Richard is a Canucket, eh?

  2. Arthur says:
    June 17, 2006 at 3:11 pm AST

    Anyway, I think poutine is definitely a Canucket.

    OK. I agree. That doesn’t mean that I like it :-).

  3. Marian says:
    June 18, 2006 at 7:19 am AST

    I imagine the existence of Poutine creates a real problem for some news announcers in Quebec. The problem has to do with how to pronounce Vladimir Putin’s name. If you pronounce it poutine as it’s generally pronounced, then it means french fries and cheese curds with gravy. If you pronounce it as it’s spelled in French (with the u as in pluriel) it’s putain which is whore. I suppose if you had to you could say pout (as in toute) and tain as in Tintin.

  5. alfons says:
    June 18, 2006 at 11:30 am AST

    Gross! (Fries with cheese.)
    Never liked french fries anyway, give me flemish fries; mayonaise with that, please.

  6. Arthur says:
    June 18, 2006 at 11:34 am AST

    Gross! (Fries with cheese.)

    You forgot the gravy. Gravy is part of it too.

  7. Arthur says:
    June 18, 2006 at 12:19 pm AST

    Interesting that link to the NY: ‘Putain’ reminds me of the Spanish word ‘Puta’.

    I have no doubt that both ‘putain’ and ‘puta’ originally come from the classical language Latin (the closest I get is this [rotten’]) It’s been a long time I read and wrote (and spoke) Latin.

  8. Arthur says:
    June 18, 2006 at 12:21 pm AST

    give me flemish fries; mayonaise with that, please.

    And oh, the closest Northern American dish to that is ‘French Fries with Hellman’s‘. Trust me: you wouldn’t want to try that with Kraft’s mayo.

  9. Marian says:
    June 18, 2006 at 2:57 pm AST

    I like my fries with the potato skins still on them with ketchup. I’ve had some nice ones in Quebec sans curd cheese, gravy or mayo.

  10. Arthur says:
    June 18, 2006 at 5:26 pm AST

    I like my fries with the potato skins still on them with ketchup.

    I remember the first time (in Canada!) that I was served fries with the skins on them [fries with peelings are not a familiar thing in the Europe I lived in].

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