# Origin of "Canuck" for Igloo living, snow and blubber eating Canadians?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202 "2002-09-30T05:36:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GopherGod72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@GopherGod72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GopherGod72)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/1 "2002-09-30T05:36:13Z")

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I think the OP says it all. 😃

Seriously though.

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/2 "2002-09-30T07:32:39Z")

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According to the [_American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_](http://www.bartleby.com/61/), the etymology of [canuck](http://www.bartleby.com/61/88/C0078800.html) (“_Often Offensive Slang_ A Canadian, especially a French Canadian”) is “probably alteration of Canadian”.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/3 "2002-09-30T12:06:56Z")

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[Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/082498.html#canuck) says it’s probably from “Canadian.” Another theory has it that it’s a blend of “Canadian” and “inuk,” the singular of “inuit.” Yet another threory says that it’s Hawaiian.

The OED’s first citation is from 1835 when it was spelled “Kanuk.”

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**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/4 "2002-09-30T12:15:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \*  
> \*\*According to the [_American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_](http://www.bartleby.com/61/), the etymology of [canuck](http://www.bartleby.com/61/88/C0078800.html) (“_Often Offensive Slang_ A Canadian, especially a French Canadian”) is “probably alteration of Canadian”. \*\*

I’ve heard this definition before, which apparently stems from Nixon using it as a derogatory word about people from Vermont. I’m quite amused that the primary definition would be as an _offensive_ one; would we really have a team called the Vancouver Canucks if it was offensive? Think “Yankee” without the civil war baggage. I can’t guarantee that it wouldn’t be offensive to any Canadian (I’m thinking here of hard-core separatists) but in the Rest of Canada it’s a self-applied term of endearment, although context always matters.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/5 "2002-09-30T13:12:44Z")

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Some more theories:

> [@](#):
>
> There is a theory that the word is derived from Connaught, a term said to be given by French Canadians to the Irish. There is a suggestion that it may come from the first syllable of Canada, combined with an Algonquin noun ending in –uc. The Oxford Companion To The English Language (defines the term as): “Canuck, 1820’s. Probably from the Iroquoian canuchsa, someone in a kanata (village)…but possibly from Hawaiian kanaka (man), through a pidgin used in the fur trade (in which Pacific islanders were employed), and taken into French as canaque, perhaps being originally applied to French Canadian canoemen. A nickname for a Canadian…but in the U.S. Northeast pejoratively referring to French Canadians.”  
> [http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/canuck.htm](http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/canuck.htm)

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**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/6 "2002-09-30T13:54:28Z")

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The German racial insult “Kanacke” (meaning dark skinned foreigners in general) derives from the Hawaiian root mentioned above.

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**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-canuck-for-igloo-living-snow-and-blubber-eating-canadians/130202/7 "2002-09-30T14:07:45Z")

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[What is a canuck](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84615)