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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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Some Newly Collected Sayings,

Canadian and Otherwise

 

Hunting in Canada

We’re gonna deke out for some jack-lamping.

• Jack-lamping is illegal hunting at night with bright lights, often fastened to the roof of the cab of a truck. Such lights can be used to stop deer in their dainty-hooved tracks and then the brave hunters can blow their heads off with elephant guns. Ah, what manly sport!

Alberta Tough Guy

He has more guts than Gainers.

• Gainers was a meat-packing plant that existed in Edmonton for many decades. 

 

Canadian Prairie Weather

You know it's a bad prairie storm when your mother is going through the ash trays for the third time trying to find enough tobacco for a re-roll smoke.

Bill Turner, Brandon , Manitoba

 

Anger

She was some choked off.

• In our Maritimes it means that she was very angry.

 

Happiness

Whatever floats your boat.

• Meaning whatever makes you happy, content, or satisfied, this maritime expression can also suggest that you try whatever method will work in a current work project.

Tyler B., Corner Brook , Newfoundland

 

How Drunk Were You?

Woke up with a sore arse and a tattoo.

 

I.Q.

He couldn't get a job shoveling horse shit at a rodeo.

• He's not too bright.

Len Ross, North Bay , Ontario

 

 

Saying the Wrong Thing

When he opens his mouth, it is only to change his foot.

 

Drinking

I got rid of my alcohol problem. I divorced him.

-from a listener to Bill Turner’s radio show on CKLQ in Brandon , Manitoba

 

You Can’t Take It with You

There’s no trailer hitch on a hearse.

Tim Gompf, near Oak Lake , Manitoba

 

Cars

Drive it like you stole it.

• This is advice to someone driving a vehicle too slow.

Tim Gompf

 

Sex

No chuppah, no shtuppah.

• The basic meaning here is that there shall be no sex until we’re married. Both words rhyme with cook-a. This is an old, rough joke supposedly uttered by a North American Jewish princess when the young man asks for sex. Shtuppen is vulgar Yiddish (from German) and means ‘to have intercourse.’ The huppah or chuppa is a satin or silken canopy under which an Orthodox or Conservative Jewish bride and groom take their vows. Supported by wooden poles held up by male relatives, the chuppah often has a Biblical quotation stitched in Hebrew letters into the silk or satin. Jewish scholars suggest the original meaning in Hebrew may have been ‘covering’ or ‘room of the covering.’ In some historical Jewish communities the chuppah was the bride’s veil; in others a shawl that covered the heads of both the bride and the groom. In American and some Reform synagogues the chuppah can be an arch woven of green leaves and flowers.

 

If you have Canadian or other sayings you would like to share, email them to me. If you want your name listed below the saying as contributor, tell me so in your email.

canadiansayings@mountaincable.net

 

copyright © 2010 William Gordon Casselman

Any comments, corrections, emendations, additional word lore, orders for my books? Please email me at canadiansayings@mountaincable.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Graupel & Chionablepsia: Snow Words # 4

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My books of Canadian Sayings (previewable here by clicking on Books to Sample just under the title at the top of this page) contain hundreds of Canadian expressions, both in English and in French.

 

 

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If you want to share some wonderful Canadian sayings, both in English and in Québec French, you will find more than 3,000 Canadian expressions in my three sayings books. Each of my three volumes of Canadian Sayings contains about 1,200 zesty phrases used by Canadians both today and throughout our history. Remember that profits from the sale of my books keep this website online.

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This new book is available from November 2007 and can be ordered at any bookstore in the world. Among the essay contributors in Readings for Technical Communication are George Grant, Marshall McLuhan, C.P. Snow, George Orwell, Stephen Strauss, William Zinsser and, yours ever in abject humility — Bill Casselman.

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Other Canadian Word Stories

 

Description of Site Contents

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™ & Words of the World features thousands of entries about Canadian phrases, words, expressions, and folk sayings. Canadian French expressions, idioms and folk sayings are featured and explained in English. The latest, newest French Canadian slang is deciphered. Québécois joual phrases and jokes are explained in English. My newest, latest, unpublished word stories and studies appear here on this website. Canadian English is the focus but English spoken and written all over the world and throughout the history of the language interests me as well. Words of the World spotlights non-Canadian English words and their origins from languages all over the world and permits me to venture on etymological journeys well beyond the pleasant confines of my native Canada.

 

Other Places to Visit on My Website

Casselman's Canadian Words / Casselmania

Canadian Garden Words /Canadian Food Words

What's In a Canadian Name? / Canadian Sayings

Canadian Sayings 2 / Canadian Sayings 3

A Dictionary of Medical Derivations

Bill Casselman's Other Writings

As The Canoe Tips: Comic Scenes from Canadian Life

Canadian Words & Sayings 2006 edition

 

 

 

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Copyright © 1996 -2010 William Gordon Casselman

 

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