# Canadian word?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 17, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863 "2005-07-17T07:24:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/1 "2005-07-17T07:24:58Z")
There’s a Canadian at my school whose favorite word seems to be _keif_, which he uses instead of _nasty_ or _gross_. He swears it’s an English word and he doesn’t know how to spell it either. Another Canadian teacher (at another school) who’s a friend of the first Canadian also swears it’s an English word and also doesn’t know how to spell it. The spelling I have above is just my guess.
So, what language is it really from and what does it really mean?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/2 "2005-07-17T07:56:25Z")
Well, there’s the similar word [queef](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=queef), whose meaning is gross enough, but it’s not specifically Canadian.
I’ve never heard _keif_, though. Possibly I’m on the wrong level of social strata.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/3 "2005-07-17T08:22:34Z")
I’m a B.C. Canuck.
I _guarantee_ you it doesn’t mean “nasty” here.
It’s a fine combustible, and if I remember right, it’s a Persian word meaning “killer buzz.”
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/4 "2005-07-17T08:55:58Z")
> [@Monty](#):
>
> There’s a Canadian at my school whose favorite word seems to be _keif_, which he uses instead of _nasty_ or _gross_. He swears it’s an English word and he doesn’t know how to spell it either. …
Just a thought but in Scotland we have a slang word - keech - which means, well, shit. Perhaps it travelled?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/5 "2005-07-17T11:06:35Z")
Monty writes:
\> The spelling I have above is just my guess.
If you’re just guessing at the spelling, why didn’t you give us a spelling that would make it easier to tell how it’s pronounced? Is that a long a or a long e or a long i for the vowel?
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/6 "2005-07-17T11:13:02Z")
Another canadian who’s never heard of it, here. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/7 "2005-07-17T13:09:44Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#):
>
> Monty writes:
>
> \> The spelling I have above is just my guess.
>
> If you’re just guessing at the spelling, why didn’t you give us a spelling that would make it easier to tell how it’s pronounced? Is that a long a or a long e or a long i for the vowel?
It’s the same as the digraph in _sleight_.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/8 "2005-07-17T13:31:22Z")
Google isn’t having much luck, but “kipe” and “kype” are both on [Urbandictionary.com](http://Urbandictionary.com) as “to steal or pilfer.”
“kife” and “kyfe” both seem to have that definition as well as the one you’re using.
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### Author:  [@Grim\_Jaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Jaa)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/9 "2005-07-17T13:34:56Z")
Where are they from? Ontario?
I’m familar with the word and I’m from Ontario. It never really was widely used and only certain people would use the word keif.
Doesn’t necessarily mean somethat that is nasty. Its more often used as a substitute for “shit” in the following manner:
That movie was total shit.
That movie was keif.
Its pronounced KAI EEF. (long i, long e)
I should also note that the people who always tended to use it thought they were being clever and super-dooper original.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/10 "2005-07-17T13:42:53Z")
Yep, they’re both from Ontario; however, they pronounce it with only one syllable. What “certain people” would use it there? Also, is it considered a curse word?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/11 "2005-07-17T18:16:32Z")
Monty writes:
\> It’s the same as the digraph in sleight.
That’s no help at all. What is the vowel (or combination of vowels) in this word?
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### Author:  [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/12 "2005-07-17T18:52:28Z")
> [@Grim Jaa](#):
>
> Where are they from? Ontario?
>
> I’m familar with the word and I’m from Ontario. It never really was widely used and only certain people would use the word keif.
>
> Doesn’t necessarily mean somethat that is nasty. Its more often used as a substitute for “shit” in the following manner:
Another Ontarian here. I’d agree with **Grim Jaa**. Except in my experience it was a single syllable word, “Kife”; rhymes with “knife”. I only have a vague memory of some people using this word in high school. (20 yrs ago).
Never heard it used to mean gross though.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/13 "2005-07-17T20:54:36Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#):
>
> Monty writes:
>
> \> It’s the same as the digraph in sleight.
>
> That’s no help at all. What is the vowel (or combination of vowels) in this word?
May I suggest that you find a dictionary (yes, I checked a few before asking the question in the OP) and look at the pronunciation guide therein, then look at the pronunciation for the word _sleight_, the definition of the word _digraph_, and then post the answer to “What’s your problem?”
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/14 "2005-07-17T21:09:33Z")
Why are you deliberately being unhelpful?
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/15 "2005-07-17T21:12:31Z")
I’m not being uhelpful. You’re rapidly approaching being a jerk and all this because you apparently don’t understand the concept of a pronunciation guide in a dictionary?!
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### Author:  [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/16 "2005-07-17T21:18:11Z")
Just checking in to say that I grew up in Northeastern Ontario and have lived in and around Ottawa for four years, and am thoroughly unfamiliar with this word. Whatever it is, it souds pretty specific to a regional or social group.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/17 "2005-07-17T21:23:12Z")
From [www.dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com) for _digraph_:
> [@](#):
>
> 1. A pair of letters representing a single speech sound, such as the ph in pheasant or the ea in beat.
Same source, pronunciation for _sleight_:
> [@](#):
>
> (sl[sup]I[/sup]t)
Seriously, Wendell, are you okay? This really isn’t that big an issue for you to be taking the tack you have here.
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/18 "2005-07-17T21:25:17Z")
> [@chrisk](#):
>
> Another canadian who’s never heard of it, here. 🙂
I know this is way off-topic, but I feel like I wasted my 1000th post on that. (sighs.)
:smack:
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/19 "2005-07-17T21:32:24Z")
All you had to do was say, “It’s a long i.” What was the point in saying that it was the same vowel as in “sleight,” a rather uncommon word?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-word/312863/20 "2005-07-17T21:37:16Z")
“Sleight” is an uncommon word, now?
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