Alternative forms

• canuck
• Canack, Cannack, Canuc, canuc, Canuk, Conuck, Cunnuck, Kanuck, Kanuk, K'nuck

Etymology

1835 Kanuk (US), 1849 canuck (Canadian), origin unclear.

Several dictionaries simply state that it is an alteration of or . More than one theory holds that the name began as an informal self-appellation by an early Canadian minority, and later acquired a national identity. A few sources explain the ending as coming from , from , or another Canadian Aboriginal ending like , , or .

Another theory is that the name is from the surname , used as a French-Canadian nickname for the Irish. Yet another speculates that the origin is , which is also the origin of . It has also been thought to come from , , or .

Since 1975, a number of linguists have come to believe that the name probably comes from , a self-appellation of indentured colonial canoemen and Hawaiian sailors working off the Pacific Northwest, Arctic, and New England coasts. The term may have come to English through , or more likely, via American whalers. Compare English and French or , Austrian German .

Noun

1. A Canadian.
   • 1849, James Edward Alexander, L'Acadie; or, Seven Years' Explorations in British America, v 1, London: Henry Colburn, pp 272–3:

     We saw a few partridges: we also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung round him, who called to us ‘Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck:’ a (Canadian).

2. A Canadian, especially a French Canadian.
   • 1835, Henry Cook Todd, Notes Upon Canada and the United States, p 92:

     Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or a French Canadian, by the term Kanuk.

   • 1889, John G. Donkin, Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-West: Recollections of Life in the North-West Mounted Police, Canada, 1884-1888, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, p 148:

     It is a pity these Canadian militiamen spoilt the good work they had done by never-failing bluster. But for pure and unadulterated brag I will back the lower-class Canuck against the world. The Yankee is a very sucking dove compared to his northern neighbour.

3. The French-Canadian dialect.
   • 1904, Holman Francis Day, “Song of the Men o' the Ax: Verse Stories of the Plain Folk Who Are Keeping Bright the Old Home Fires Up in Maine”, in Kin o' Ktaadn, p 145:

     On the deacon-seat in the leapin' heat / With the corn-cobs drawin' cool and sweet, / And timin' the fiddle with tunkin' feet, / A hundred men and a chorus. / “Roule, roulant, ma boule roulant,” / all Canuck but a good song; / Lift it up then, good and strong, / for a cozy night's before us.

4. A thing from Canada.
   • 1887: Grip (Toronto), 19 February, p 3:

     Who'll buy my caller herrin'? / Cod, turbot, ling, delicious herrin', / Buy my caller herrin', / They're every one Kanucks!

5. A Canadian pony or horse.
   • 1860, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Miss Gilbert's Career: An American Story, p 25:

     I'll sit here and blow till he comes round with his old go-cart, and then I'll hang on to the tail of it, and try legs with that little Kanuck of his.

6. A member of the Vancouver Canucks professional NHL ice hockey team.
7. The Avro Canada CF-100 fighter-interceptor.

Usage notes

In Canada, the term is not derogatory, and considered to apply to all Canadians. In the United States the term is often considered derogatory, and especially offensive to French Canadians in New England.

Adjective

1. Canadian.
   • 1887, Grip (Toronto), 5 March, pp 1–2:

     Well, what do you think of the Canuck elections?