Canuck

Meanings

Noun

Adjective

Related

Similar words

Origin

  • Attested since 1835 as Kanuk (in US writings) and 1849 as canuck (in Canadian writings). Of Unknown origin, often hypothesized to derive from the name or speech of an early Canadian minority, later broadened to denote all Canadians.
  • Some dictionaries suggest it is an alteration of Canada, which in any case ensured the spelling Can-,
  • Some sources connect the ending to Inuktitut inuk ("man, person"), from Chinook, or another First-Nation language ending like -uc, -uq, or -oc.
  • Since 1975, many scholars have come to think the name is from Hawaiian kanaka ("man"), a self-appellation of indentured colonial canoemen and Hawaiian sailors working off the Pacific Northwest, Arctic and New England coasts, via French canaque or (more likely) American whalers' pidgin, and then been re-interpreted as Canadian + a suffix. Compare English Kanak and French ("black person"), German Kanake.
  • Fanciful suggestions include German ("enough of Canada") (allegedly uttered by German mercenaries during the American War of Independence), or French (allegedly uttered by the French during a siege of Quebec), or the surname Connaught (supposedly a French-Canadian nickname for the Irish).
  • Possibly derived from the Inuit word "qanuk", meaning "snowflake". With the first Europeans being much lighter-skinned than native Americans, it's not unlikely that they might have been referred to as "snowflakes".

Modern English dictionary

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