# "Yankee Words"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 20, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339 "2001-11-20T04:09:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339/61 "2001-11-23T06:30:58Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Balduran \*  
> **I tried an internet search and didn’t find much, but everyone in Canada has a touque and refers to it that way. I think the origin is probably from France.**

There is variation in both languages, but in French the preference is for “tuque,” in English the proper term is less clear-cut. I think “touque” becomes more common the further west you get. The American dictionary **[Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com)**, based in Springfield, Mass, has this to say:

> [@](#):
>
> Main Entry: tuque  
> Pronunciation: 'tük, 'tyük  
> Etymology: Canadian French, from French toque – more at TOQUE  
> Date: 1871  
> : a warm knitted usually pointed stocking cap

I didn’t realise it had to be pointed. They distinguish it from “toque,” which is what formerly Canadian, now Vermont-based Ambler Mountain Works calls [this](http://www.amblermountainworks.com/products/105.html). I think most Canucks would just call it a tuque.

Sorry if this was a bit dry, I’m still in GQ mode.

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**Author:** ![Etaoin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@Etaoin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Etaoin)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339/62 "2001-11-23T07:19:19Z")

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dqa, that picture of a touque might pass as one for people who know what grits and black-eyed peas are. But real touques have a big fold around them, like a pant cuff, so you can pull it down to your chin when walking into the wind or when it’s 40 below and the air sears your lungs and your breath turns the inside of the touque at your mouth into a cake of ice.

And a real touqe has a dingle-ball-like woollen doodad on the top. And although they can be green, a real touqe is blue or white, or blue and white, preferbly the latter, and shares a . . . er . . . distinctive odor . . . after it’s been sitting on a schoolroom radiator for three hours with 30 other touques and 60 woollen mitts and maybe 40 socks. Thank God no long underwear, as I recall.

“Now children, can anyone tell teacher how she can be in Hawaii by this time tomorrow?”

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339/63 "2001-11-23T21:22:59Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Palve \*  
> \*\* “Wicked” is a northernism? Weird. I thought everybody said it. Wicked.  
> \*\*. \*\*

Ah, but it depends on the manner used. To me what you said makes no sense, because wicked, when not speaking of the wicked witch of the east, translates to “very,” not evil.

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**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yankee-words/94339/64 "2001-11-23T23:57:19Z")

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Right, we say something is wicked good or wicked cool, or its wicked cold out, work is wicked hard, etc.

The only exception is that sometimes we say something is frickin’ wicked which is the same as wicked cool.

I’ve never heard this outside of New England.

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