2007

Sample the content of my latest book.

450 packed pages !

The biggest bargain

in Canadian word books!

$ 10.95 CDN. at bookstores

all across Canada

published by

McArthur & Company, Toronto

Order  online  here

- - - - approved for home and school use - - - -

 

from the preface. . .

As its title proclaims, this is a book full of wholesome Canadian word stories and family-friendly Canadian sayings: words first, sayings second. 550 expressions are inside and 156 are brand-new, never before published in any of my collections. Other books of mine have contained racy, raunchy and off-colour items but not this one. Uncle Billy promises purity and swears on a stack of rusty Paul Martin campaign buttons!

THE WORDS

This word collection highlights my own favourite Canadian word stories, especially chosen for the enjoyment of the whole family. For example...

Just How did the Maple Leaf Become the Emblem of Canada ?

Long symbolic of Canada, the leaf of a sugar maple has been the heraldic device on our flag since 1965. The Québec and Ontario coats-of-arms granted in 1868 have maple leaves; so does the 1921 Canadian coat-of-arms.

But did one event begin this Canada-maple leaf association?

Well, some say the maple leaf symbolism began with its use as camouflage!

An intriguing suggestion, in the form of a folktale, is repeated in Frank Quance’s The Canadian Speller: Grade 6 (3 rd. ed., Gage, 1950): “During the war of 1812-1814, the scarlet jacket of Canadian and British soldiers made a perfect target for the enemies. Therefore, when fighting in the woods, each soldier cut slips in his blouse and inserted a twig of maple leaves to bluff the enemy. This was the first time the maple leaf had been specifically identified with Canadians or with Canada .”

The Maple Leaf Forever!

One day in the fall of 1867 a Toronto school teacher named Alexander Muir was traipsing a street in the city, all squelchy underfoot from the soft felt of falling leaves, when a maple leaf alighted on his coat sleeve and stuck there. After it resisted several brushings-off, Muir joked to his walking companion that this would be “the maple leaf for ever!” At home that evening, he wrote a poem and set it to music, in celebration of Canada ’s Confederation earlier that year. Muir’s song, “The Maple Leaf Forever,” was wildly popular and helped fasten the symbol firmly to Canada and things Canadian.

 

These stories from Canadian history and from last night’s news headlines are entertaining and surprising. You’ll find out in the first section of my newthe book why some terms that we use everyday are not what they seem.

Did you know that Lake Huron is a vicious, nasty insult to our First Peoples?

Canada has a fish that ignites. On our Pacific coast, the oolichan or candlefish is so full of oil it can be lighted at one end and used as a candle. British Columbia pioneers did just that.

PIPSISSEWA?

• Have you tasted pipsissewa? It’s a First Nations word that is 100% Canadian. If you’ve ever taken a swig of good, home made, tongue-startling, palate-corrugating root beer (not the homogenized, limp-bubbled suds of commercial root beers), then you know the refreshing, wintergreen-like taste of Pipsissewa. Taste more Canadian words for our food and drink inside Canadian Words & Sayings!

Are You A Cheechako?

Ever thought of heading to northern Alberta’s tomorrow country, the tar sands. When you arrive, you’ll be a cheechako.Prospectors heading north to the Klondike gold rush of 1898 brought this Pacific coast word for ‘greenhorn’ or ‘newcomer’ with them and it is still is wide use throughout Canada’s far north. Cheechako is Chinook Jargon, chee ‘new’ + chako ‘come.’ The term was introduced into Canadian English by the popularity of Robert W. Service’s books of frontier poetry, especially Songs of a Sourdough (1907) and Ballads of a Cheechako (1909).

 

Canadian Words & Sayings features Weather Rhymes from all across Canada, like these two from Ontario:

1

When the woods murmur, and the Great Lakes roar,

Then close your windows, and stay on shore.

 

2

When poplar shows its underwear,

The clouds do rain and thunder bear.

 

Enjoy more Canuck words plus 550 Canadian folk sayings (including 156 expressions newly collected), waiting inside Bill Casselman's newest book.

 

Here are all the main word topics as listed on the contents page of the book:

 

Agincourt , Ontario Alberta Chuckwagon Slang Alberta ’s Fort Whoop-Up Arctic Char & The Origin of the Word Arctic Alder Trees, Canadian Beavers & Venice , Italy Apples of Canada Arborvitae: The Canadian Origin of This Cedar’s Name Arctic Willow Tea Athabasca Bafflegab & Gobbledygook of Canada CD Bakeapple Baked Wind Pills Balsamroot Balsam & Balm: Word Lore Galore Bangbelly Bear Foot Bear’s Butter Bedlunch Bellybusters Birch Bark Moose Calls “Birdcages” of Victoria , B.C. Blé d’Inde (Indian Corn) Blue-Blood Alley in Vancouver   Bluff on the Canadian Prairies Boil-Up & A Pipe Boss Ribs of Prairie Buffalo Boucanière (Acadian Smokehouse) & Pirates Bouillon d’Habitant (Farmer’s Stew) Bourassa & Borage & Burro Brewis Brollywood , British Columbia   Bryan Adams Buffalo Berry Bungee of Manitoba Butte Butter Tart Cabot: Famous Name in Canadian History Cadillac: Automobile Takes Fur Trader’s Name Calgary Redeye Callaghan: A Literary Surname of Canada Canola Camas of British Columbia Canada Bloodroot or Puccoon Canadian Prison Slang: Benny, Billy & Dunker Canadian Wild Ginger: A Pioneer Toothpaste Cape Breton Pork Pies Caribou Catskinner Charlottetown Cheechako Chiard Cipaille or Sea Pie? Ciselette (Pork & Molasses Dessert Sauce) Coteaux of Canada Colcannon Night in Newfoundland Coulee Cow Chips & Bodewash Cushion Cactus Fruit of Alberta Damper Dogs & Flacoons in Newfoundland Digby Chicken “Dog Patch” in Edmonton Dollar Bill: A Canuck Buck Dolly Varden Trout Dough Gods Douglas Fir of British Columbia Duck Potato & Wapatoo: Canadian Terms for Arrowhead Plant Dulse Dumb Cake Eau Claire in Calgary Edmonton ’s Neighbourhoods Eel Pie Eh? Did Canucks Invent Eh? Figgy Duff Firewater Fireweed Tea in the Yukon First Meridian of Manitoba Flipper Pie of Newfoundland Foule : It Might Fool You. Fredericton , New Brunswick Fricot (Acadian Stew) Frolic in New Brunswick Has Jumpy Origin. Fungy Geoduck a.k.a. Gooeyduck Gin Pole Gorbies all over Muskoka! Gow in B.C. Waters Grid Roads Grunt Halifax Hallelujah Point in Vancouver Ofra Harnoy: Meanings of A Cellist’s Name Haw Eaters or Manitoulin Islanders Hébert: Famous Surname of Québec Hepatica Here’s A Ho! Herring-Choker in New Brunswick Hewitt of Hockey Shoots & Scores. High Muckamuck Hoodoo Hootch Hurt Pie Intervale of our Maritimes Irish Moss Pudding Jigg’s Dinner Jill-Poke Jollop Juniper Tea Kahahoosa or Jack-in-the-Pulpit Kartoshnik — Doukhobors’ Potatoes Kiack Kinnikinnick Kitsilano in Vancouver Krall as in “Diana of the Keyboards” Labrador Tea Lake Winnipeg Goldeye Lassy Mogs Logging Jargon of British Columbia Lucivee Lumber: Origin of a Word in Canadian Economic History Lunenburg Pudding Malpeque Oysters of P.E.I. Mangeurs De Lard or Porkeaters Manitoulin Manitowaning Maple — The Totally Awesome Super Entry of this Entire Book Marquis Wheat Medicare Mi’kmaq Potato or Groundnut Mina : The Cree Word for ‘ Berry ’ Mooseberry Moose Muffle Soup Mug Up Nanaimo Bar Nettle Soup Newfoundland Changes Its Name Nuisance Grounds Nunavik & Nunavut: Different Words for Different Places Ontario Hydro Oolichan: A Fish That Ignites Ottawa “Packingtown” In Edmonton Peavey Pembina Berry Pemmican Pickerel Weed Pikelets Pipsissewa Pitcher Plant Ponnukokur Pork & Jerk Potlatch Pouding du Chômeur Poutine: The Complete & Factual Story Prairie: Origin of the Word Prairie Chicken Prickly Pear Cactus Prince Edward Island of Many Names Real Mccoy of Ontario : An African-Canadian Invention Red River Bannock Richibucto Goose Rips Robin Hood™ Flour Rock Tripe or Tripe De Roche Rouleauville in Calgary   Rubbaboo St. John’s Salal Salmonberry or Olallie Saskatoonberry Saw-Off Saw-Whet Owl Scarborough   Scotchman’s Hill in Calgary Scripture Cord Scrunchins Scut on Prince Edward Island Shediacs Skidroad in Vancouver   Skunk Cabbage & Me Skyr Sloven Smelt Storm Soapolallie, Soapberry or Hooshum Sockeye Salmon: A British Columbia Word Son-Of-A-Gun-In-A-Sack Sonsy Sounds Squatum Stog Your Face Tar Sands of Fort Mcmurray , Alberta Teddy of Shine Tooney: Birth of a Canadian Money Word Toronto Words & Place Names Toronto Street Slang Tourtière Toutin Tree Nails of New Brunswick Trillium, a.k.a. Moose-Flower of Nova Scotia Vent-View Wangan & Wanigan Weather Rhymes of Canada Whore’s Egg Why I’m Not a Word Cop: A Personal Essay Winnipeg Winnipeg Jambuster + 550 Folk Sayings Used by Canadians

 

 

 

Canadian Words & Sayings

ISBN 1-55278-569-6       450 pages       price $ 10.99  CDN.

published by

McArthur & Company, Toronto

 

Bill Casselman's NEW book is available at online booksellers and in bookstores across Canada.

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$10.95 in all Canadian bookstores.

published by

McArthur & Company, Toronto

 

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