From previous visits to Canada I’ve learned that table napkins are called “serviettes”, and, less bewilderingly, restrooms are called “washrooms”. On a recent visit I wondered if maybe there’s another word that Canadians may call something else … After my wife discovered that our motel room wasn’t supplied with washcloths, and I called to have some brought to our room, the young man arrived with a hand towel. I explained that what our room lacked was the smaller, square-shaped cloths. Do Canadians have a different word for these?
And, for future reference, can you, dear readers, think of any other common things for which Americans and Canadians do not share a name? Or, in other words, what other American words need to be translated into Canadian?
We usually call them ‘facecloths’. I can’t imagine someone in English Canada not knowing what you meant. Some might call them a flannel, but that’s pretty rare.
Parking Garage = parkade
Couch = chesterfield
Garbage Disposal = garburator
We also say pro-doose rather than praw-duce when referencing vegetables and fruits.
In Ontario, at least, ‘hydro’ = electric utility service. “I got the hydro bill today.” This comes from the fact that the first electric utilities used hydro-electric generators at Niagara Falls and elsewhere. In the 1920s or 1930s the whole generation and distribution system was nationalised under the name of Ontario Hydro. The local utilities often had names like Whitby Hydro and Toronto Hydro.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that facecloths are becoming uncommon? I know so many people whose bathrooms are replete with towels and soap and all kinds of accessories, but there’s nary a facecloth to be seen…
When I moved from the UK to Canada, nobody had a clue what I meant by “flannel.” I’ve always used and heard the terms washcloths and facecloths (pretty interchangably).
I can honestly say that I have never heard of a parking garage called a parkade; that must be a regional thing.
One of those British English terms we’ve held onto.
And where did that come from? Is that a brand-name or something?
Buffalo is a mere 40 miles across Lake Ontario from Toronto, so the [Eastern time zone] U.S. networks carried here are from there. It’s amazing the differences in dialect. It’s like someone taught the TV people to extend all of their vowels by an extra beat. “Get more for your daaalllar with great que-pons at Sooooper Doooooper.”
RE: the OP, my understanding is that a serviette is a paper napkin. I’m pretty sure that if you called a cloth napkin a serviette, you’d get strange looks.
To me, that’s a kind of fabric. I have flannel sheets for the winter–it’s like sleeping in a hug.
There’s still a chain of furniture stores in the Toronto area called “The Chesterfield Shop”, but I think the term has been largely displaced by the word “couch” (not “sofa”, incidentally). I blame the insidious linguistuc subversion of the expression “couch potato”.
For the food-waste grinder built into a sink drain? Yes, I believe so. To me the garburator has always been something of an uncommon item, even a luxury item; I did not realise for a long time that many municipalities do not allow them because they overstrain their sewage systems.
I’ve noticed that from the other side of the lake. The Buffalonian accent is more normal for me, so to my ears it sounds like the Canadians are clipping their vowels at the last minute. That’s where the whole about/aboat* confusion comes from. It’s like the rest of the “ow” isn’t stretched out long enough, so part of it is missing.
Living in Southern Ontario my whole life (Kingston, Toronto, Burlington, etc) I have never, in my life, not once even* heard* the term “parkade”. It sounds like a refreshing summer drink to me.
Actually, I call napkins napkins - probably depends on what part of Canada you’re in. I do use the word “washroom” although I’m sure very few people up here would bat an eye at you using “restroom”. I too have noticed the puzzling absence of washcloths in hotels recently. If I don’t find one when I’m in a hotel, I mutter and then find the smallest towel and use that as a washcloth.
What do you call those long sandwiches made out of a 6" or 12" (typically) loaf with things like meat, cheese, lettuce, etc. etc. in them? I (and I think most Canadians) would call it a “Sub” or if being really verbose a “Submarine sandwich”. I seem to recall folk south of the border have different terms for it.
PS And of course, you guys pronounce the last letter of the alphabet funny.
I probably talk funny because I grew up in the east but have lived in the west since 1978. That said, I would tend to call parking spaces that are part of another building (e.g. below the building or closely attached to it) a parkade, and an independent parking-only building a parking garage. Then again, maybe that’s just me.
In Michigan we call 'em subs, too. I’d be suprised if New Yorkers didn’t know that Mr. Sub sold, well, subs.
How about “cutlerly”? Back home we call it “silverware” (yeah, even not made made from silver) or “flatware” if you want to distinguish the non-silverness. Of course, the word “cutlerly” exists in American English too, but it’s rather formal, and you never would hear a waitress say, “I’ll be right back with your cutlery.”
One other thing is that “Labatt Blue” is just “Blue” here.
When I was younger in Toronto and Simpson’s was still a department store, I seem to recall that the multilevel parking garage on Richmond Street attached by catwalk to Simpson’s Queen Street store (now the Bay, for you young’uns) was called “Simpson’s Parkade.” And doesn’t the Eaton Centre call its garage the Parkade? Anyway, regardless of what these garages are called, the term may be uncommon in southern Ontario, but it is certainly there. I do recall it being in use.
Also re serviettes/napkins–this may be a “just me” thing, but my family never drew a distinction between paper and linen. They were, regardless of material, “serviettes.”
There’s different names in different parts of the country but we all know the word. There are Subway shops almost everywhere. I don’t know if the chain is in Canada though.
There have been doctoral dissertations and major grants from institutes of philology devoted to tracing and untangling the skein of words used to identify that object. The few I can recite without digging into my memory are:
Submarine’s (Subs)
Torpedoes
Heroes
Poor Boys
Hoagies
Grinders
but there are several others, as well.
Originally, they were all regional, but during WWII, guys from all over the country had to deal with trying to order the same sandwich in different towns. After the war, some guys transplanted the names to new locations as “exotic” alternatives to the local names and still later, national chains and franchises of restaurants or food distributors forced “foreign” names into local dialects.
In Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio, the Tubby’s Subs and Mr. Hero and similar outfits tended to force “torpedo” out of circulation. (I have not seen a torpedo since I was a kid when they rivalled submarine for frequency.) I don’t think that grinders or hoagies were ever common around in Michigan. Heinen’s Supermarket (Cleveland area) carries “hoagies” in their deli section, but I don’t recall seeing it anywhere else.
That’s not a Canadianism. I pronounce it that way, and I grew up in New Jersey. When I was a kid, and only saw it written, I thought it was “FOY-uhr” (you got into the American Museum of Natural History through the 77th Street Foyer), but I think I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way than “foy-AY”
