Talk:Canuck
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"Can-UK "Canada/United Kingdom" (A person of British-Canadian descent)"
- Is there any evidence for this claim? It sounds unlikely to me since the common use of the designation "UK" is relatively new. Canuck seems to date from the early 19th century. Prior to the last couple of decades, people most commonly used the "Great Britain" part of "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". I could be off base here, so I won't change it yet. I'm hoping that someone will provide evidence that this is not just just an imaginative modern construction. Ground Zero 07:25, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I googled "Canuck + etymology" and came up with nothing to support this claim. Here are a few links: Ground Zero 07:44, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I have removed this reference pending provision of evidence. If someone can find a reference, then we can add it back in. Ground Zero 16:09, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
'It sometimes means "French Canadian" in particular' -- I have never encountered the word used in this way. Has anyone else? Rrburke 01:53, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
I have never heard 'Canuck' used to describe French Canadians in particular either, and I'm Canadian. 05:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
- I'm French Canadian and I actually thought Canuck referred only to English Canadians... --24.200.133.131 22:16, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
I've removed that sentence. It's clearly false. I also seriously question whether it can be seen as derogatory. I suspect most Candians, were someone to try to insult them by calling them "Canucks", would either laugh or scratch their heads. --24.81.13.220 04:28, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
Cleaned up and added the table of contents. Some entries were moved around. The entries for the Table of Contents are not the best but hope this is an improvementstatsone 03:39, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
There's still a reference to Canuck being used as an ethnic slur... I've never heard it used as one or considered it one... Any idea where this came from?142.59.135.116 07:03, 25 December 2006 (UTC)
- My uncle told me of how Americans called the Canadians "Canucks" in WWII and it was considered an insult by the troops. Similarly, some Americans consider it an insult to be called a "Yank" (and not just southerners). Michael Daly 05:29, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
I have serious doubts on the derivation from Can + Inuk. If the word is as old as the 18th century, contact with the Inuit, other than by whalers, was very minimal. Significant contact with Inuit culture was only in the late 19th and early 20th century. Inuktitut would have been almost unknown in New France or British North America. Unless someone can come up with evidence that the word "inuk" was known at the time sufficiently to expect it to be used to derive Canuck, I'd say the etymology is bogus. Michael Daly 05:49, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
The Hawaiian migrants theory isn't represented on the page at all. From rootsweb [[1]] :
"Many moons ago, in Canada's formative years when fur trading was all the rage, the fur trading companies searched for anybody they could hire who could wield a beaver trap. In the far west of Canada at that time, there weren't a lot of crowds. There were several Hawaiian islanders who came to the western shores of North America in search of, well, we don't know what -- but it sure as hell wasn't "nicer weather".
They worked out just fine. The Hawaiian word for "Hawaiian person" (or just a "person") is "KANAKA". Also, a "KANAKA HANA" is a worker. Still more, "KANAKA'E" is a foreigner. There's also a creek in Maple Ridge, a suburb of Vancouver, called "Kanaka Creek" though I'm not sure how that came about. Anyway, soon, the word KANAKA was used to describe these workers. Or in another version of history, all the people already living here were deemed by them to be "Kanakas", as in "foreigners".
As with all words, it soon become shortened and obliterated and KANAKA eventually became "Canuck", probably because some idiot who worked for the CBC said it wrong once (kidding)."
From what I understand, "canuck" began as a derogatory term towards French-Canadians, which has since evolved into quite the opposite. It is now a slang term that refers to all Canadians, and not viewed as derogatory by Canadians, though some Americans do try to use it as an insult at times. EZC195 January 2008. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ezc 195 (talk • contribs) 04:53, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
I live in New England, and when we use the word "canuck" it's always to describe specifically French-Canadians or Franco-Americans originally from Quebec and not Acadia.- 11:34, 16 January 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.109.153.60 (talk)
"It is similar in use to "Yankee" for an American." This might've been true once, but the word fell into disuse, and its revival has had negative connotations to it worldwide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.81.77.13 (talk) 21:27, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] What I think it comes from, but could be obviously wrong
So this American keeps calling me a canuck, and I wondered what it meant. Well it may sound dumb, but I thought about this myself. Doesn't make much sense why this word would be used, but it's amazing to me, think about duck. Most of us know of course what a duck is, and the French word for it is canard. Just makes me think of it as a portmanteau of canard and duck, it's in both official languages. But of course, the ones in the main article make much more sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.240.133.0 (talk) 06:04, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
--Just wanted to make sure I was spelling it right and came across this article. Seems a bit Canadian-centric in tone to me. Obviously a Canuck wrote most of this. It IS derogatory if you aren't in the group...such as "yankee" or "dixie" or "guido" or "hippie" etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wontonotnow (talk • contribs) 16:31, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
