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Origin and history of Canadian

Canadian(adj.)

"pertaining to Canada," 1560s; see Canada. Also as a noun, "native or inhabitant of Canada" (1759).

also from 1560s

Entries linking to Canadian

Canada

1560s (implied in Canadian), said to be a Latinized form of a word for "village" in an Iroquoian language of the St. Lawrence valley that had gone extinct by 1600. Most still-spoken Iroquoian languages have a similar word (such as Mohawk kana:ta "town").

In early 18c. Canada meant French Canada, Quebec. The British colonies (including the American colonies) were British America. After 1791 the remainder of British America was Upper Canada (the English part), Lower Canada (the French part), New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and, separately, Newfoundland. An act of Parliament in 1840 merged Upper and Lower Canada, and in 1867 the Dominion of Canada was created from the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada goose is attested from 1772.

Canadianism(n.)

"national spirit of Canadians," 1875, from Canadian + -ism.

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    dive
    The change began to be noted in the late 1850s by Canadian and U.S. editors: Bartlett (1859) notes it as an Americanism,..."Very common among seamen and not confined to them," and a paper read before the Canadian Institute in 1857 reports it in...Canadian English....
    maple
    The maple leaf is mentioned as the emblem of Canada from 1850 (an 1843 Canadian source says it "has been adopted as an emblem...by our French Canadian brethren")....
    Chicago
    town founded in 1833, named from a Canadian French form of an Algonquian word, which, according to Bright, is either Fox...
    lacrosse
    1850, American English, from Canadian French jeu de la crosse (18c.), literally "game of the hooked sticks," from crosse...
    habitant
    Specific meaning "a native Canadian of French descent" attested by 1789; it was the usual word for small farmers in 18c....
    chiropodist
    Probably coined by Canadian-born U.S. healer Daniel Palmer (1845-1913); originally they treated both hands and feet....
    portage
    carried," also "the carrying of boats from one navigable water to another" is from 1690s, reinforced in U.S. and Canada by Canadian...
    Oklahoma
    state in southwestern U.S., from Choctaw (Muskogean), literally "red people," from okla "nation, people" + homma "red." Coined by Choctaw scholar and Presbyterian minister Allen Wright (1826-1885), later principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, and first used in the Choctaw-Chickas
    OK
    "all right, correct," 1839, only survivor of a slang fad in Boston and New York c. 1838-9 for abbreviations of common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings, such as K.G. for "no go," as if spelled know go; N.C. for enough said (" 'nuff ced"); K.Y. for no use ("know yuse")
    Texas
    Mexican province, briefly an independent nation and now a U.S. state, from Spanish Texas, Tejas, earlier pronounced "ta-shas," originally an ethnic name, from Caddo (eastern Texas Indian tribe) taysha "friends, allies," written by the Spanish as a plural. Related: Texan. The alte

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