# Is "Canucks" a derogatory term? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436 "2018-08-28T21:50:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/21 "2018-08-29T16:54:00Z")
So what noun do you use in the UK for a person from there, where their specific country of origin is unspecified? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/22 "2018-08-29T16:57:17Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Brit isn’t offensive, but it kinda comes across as a bit careless and lazy. But whatever you do, do not shorten “Pakistani” the same way in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/23 "2018-08-29T17:00:24Z")
Similarly, in college, members of the Greek-letter organizations hated “frat” as a shortening of “fraternity”. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/24 "2018-08-29T17:01:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I think using terms like “Canuck” or “Yank” or “Brit” are usually harmless, but still inappropriate in a formal, business setting. I would not use those terms in written communications to business colleagues. This guy uses the term in emails and discussions about the Canadians, not to them. (The guy is one of these really idiosyncratic characters - e.g. at one point he planned to divorce his wife and would routinely refer to her in casual conversation as “my future ex”.) I’m not worried about the appropriateness of this guy’s writing. My concern was that one of these emails would end up forwarded to the Canadian team and someone would get insulted and make an issue of it. But from the discussion here, that seems to be a non-issue. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/25 "2018-08-29T17:13:06Z")
It’s not offensive. But, like the word ‘Yank’, it also isn’t respectful either. Personally I’d find it inappropriate in a business context. Would an American fancy an email asking ‘What do you Yanks think?’. Not truly offensive but not quite business formal either. I think in business, it could cut either way, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/26 "2018-08-29T17:14:17Z")
“Canuck” was considered sufficiently derogatory to the French-Canadian community in Maine to help sink Sen. Edmund Muskie’s presidential campaign in 1972— > **[Canuck letter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canuck_letter)** > > The Canuck letter was a forged letter to the editor of the Manchester Union Leader, published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary of the 1972 United States presidential election. It implied that Senator Edmund Muskie, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, held prejudice against Americans of French-Canadian descent. > The letter was a successful attempt at sabotage masterminded by Donald Segretti and written by Ken W. Clawson. In a childish sc... ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/27 "2018-08-29T17:26:40Z")
> [@Crazy\_Canuck](#): > > Since everyone seems to agree on Canuck, what about using the work Yank or Yanky to describe an American? Is that a similar thing? Down here in Alabama, you could get yourself in trouble calling the locals “Yankees”. In the South, a Yankee is strictly someone from north of the Mason-Dixon line. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/28 "2018-08-29T18:11:09Z")
It’s universally derogatory. It’s used in such phrases as ‘You root for the Canucks? I’m so sorry to hear that.’ or ‘Do you remember when the Canucks used to actually make the playoffs?’ or “The Sedins just retired from the Canucks. Do they even have a team anymore?” or “Brock Boeser of the Canucks has missed two months due to injury in each of the last two seasons.” It is never used in a positive way, as in for instance “The Canucks have just won the Stanley Cup.” or “Thatcher Demko is actually good enough to finally play goalie for the Canucks.” Basically it’s just a bad word all around and should be avoided as much as possible. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/29 "2018-08-29T18:33:33Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > : > No, it’s not offensive and about on par with the European use of Yank FWIW. Which is pretty offensive to those in the Deep South.😛 But noo, my Canadian relatives use it all the time, and dont mind it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/30 "2018-08-29T18:40:54Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > “Yankee”, when not referring to the baseball team, has two uses. It’s a seldom-used general term for Americans. It’s also a more-commonly used but increasingly rare term for a specific group of Americans - born-and-bred New Englanders. I call myself a Yankee. I’m frugal, I can build things, I have a Boston accent, I live in an old house which I will never consider finished, and I’m a curmudgeon. What exactly “Yankee” refers to depends on where you are. There are a lot of meanings. If you are in New England, it means descendants of colonial settlers from Britain, especially rural ones, the stereotypical “New England Yankee” (your second meaning). If you are in the northern US, it refers mainly to Anglo-Saxon New Englanders. If you are in the southern US, it refers to any Northerner (from the Northeast or Midwest), and is usually derogatory. If you are outside the US, it means anyone from the US, including southerners, and may or may not be derogatory. (In Latin America, _yanqui_ almost always is derogatory.) ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/31 "2018-08-29T18:47:08Z")
I always had the impression that it was either , weakly derogatory or neutral but easily used as derogatory. I had a Canadian friend and when the ball busting started in our group, Canuk was used on him, just like Mic was used on me.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/32 "2018-08-29T18:48:10Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > This guy uses the term in emails and discussions about the Canadians, not to them. (The guy is one of these really idiosyncratic characters - e.g. at one point he planned to divorce his wife and would routinely refer to her in casual conversation as “my future ex”.) > > I’m not worried about the appropriateness of this guy’s writing. My concern was that one of these emails would end up forwarded to the Canadian team and someone would get insulted and make an issue of it. But from the discussion here, that seems to be a non-issue. Yes and no. The term itself isn’t derogatory, but if it’s being used in a “behind-their-backs” sense, and leaves an “us and them” view of how the US company views its Canadian subsidiary, yes, I think it could become an issue, if an e-mail escaped to the wilds of corporate Canada. Context is important. As others have said, it just doesn’t sound professional to me. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/33 "2018-08-29T18:58:10Z")
I wouldn’t consider “Canucks” to be derogatory, but it’s definitely very informal slang and may not be appropriate for business correspondence, depending on the tone and intended audience of these emails. The fact that there’s a hockey team with that name isn’t really an endorsement – there’s also a football team called the Redskins, and hockey teams called Sharks and Predators, none of which are terms you’d normally want to call business colleagues! > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > As others have said, it just doesn’t sound professional to me. That post wasn’t there when I was composing mine, but yes, that’s just what I was saying. ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/34 "2018-08-30T00:01:12Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Yes and no. The term itself isn’t derogatory, but if it’s being used in a “behind-their-backs” sense, and leaves an “us and them” view of how the US company views its Canadian subsidiary, yes, I think it could become an issue, if an e-mail escaped to the wilds of corporate Canada. Context is important. > > As others have said, it just doesn’t sound professional to me. Yes, this. It’s also unnecessary. If he’s talking about a specific office, refer to it by location. Particular people, by name or designation within the company. If it’s Canada as a whole, just call it Canada. Can you deal with it by asking for clarity, rather than saying “don’t use that term, it’s bad”? Or, can you impose a spell check/replace to make it come out as “Canadian branches” (or whatever) whenever he types it? Just say that it is so there is less vernacular in work emails. (you’d have to consider replacing other slang, as well). (it’s not just offending the Canadians, you could get records subpoenaed for all sorts of reasons. Would it be embarrassing to have to explain why this term is used, in a court case?) Having said that, I wouldn’t be bothered if I found out I was being referred to as an Aussie, but that term doesn’t have any baggage to it, as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/35 "2018-08-30T00:03:13Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > “Yankee”, when not referring to the baseball team, has two uses. It’s a seldom-used general term for Americans. It’s also a more-commonly used but increasingly rare term for a specific group of Americans - born-and-bred New Englanders. I call myself a Yankee. I’m frugal, I can build things, I have a Boston accent, I live in an old house which I will never consider finished, and I’m a curmudgeon. **We** can call ourselves yankees but when southerners call us that it’s often not well-received…especially by people who consider the yankees the most hated rival baseball team. How often do you call yourself a yankee, though? I probably have fewer times than years I’ve been alive, despite living in New England since birth. It’s not more common amongst others that I have noticed unless the person is particularly defensive about being cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/36 "2018-08-30T04:38:32Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > “Canuck” was considered sufficiently derogatory to the French-Canadian community in Maine to help sink Sen. Edmund Muskie’s presidential campaign in 1972— > > [Canuck letter - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canuck_letter) Generalization: Americans consider collective nouns offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/37 "2018-08-30T09:39:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > So what noun do you use in the UK for a person from there, where their specific country of origin is unspecified? British person? Occasionally Briton. There’s no widely used slang version we really use. It doesn’t actually come up that often, we only tend to really call people British when a Scot wins a sporting event (it’s a running joke that Andy Murray is Scottish when he loses, British when he wins; he and many Scots are not amused) or in situations like ‘a British tourist is thought to have died in the crash’ news reports where slang would be deeply inappropriate. People from the non-English parts of Britain generally really prefer to be identified as that, especially if the person referring to them is English. They tend to clarify as soon as possible. The English are the only group generally at all likely to say they’re British. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/38 "2018-08-30T11:50:15Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Generalization: Americans consider collective nouns offensive. Collective nouns? Like “flock” or “herd”? What are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/39 "2018-08-30T12:40:06Z")
Context carries a lot of weight. E.g., the word “blonde”. As a descriptor of hair color only, no problem. As a descriptor of a stupid type of person, not such a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436/40 "2018-08-30T12:55:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > So what noun do you use in the UK for a person from there, where their specific country of origin is unspecified? Pom. One size fits all. If you want to be complimentary it’s “You clever Pommie bastard.” If you want to be patronising it’s “You poor Pommie bastard.” If you want to be derogatory it’s “You Pommie bastard.” If you want to be inflammatory it’s “You Bastard Pommie.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-canucks-a-derogatory-term/820436.md?page=3)