55 Canadianisms you may not know
December 31, 2013
HT Challies. I had so many perplexing moments lining up for black tea with homo milk and a serviette, while wearing a tuque and my skookum boots! There seemed to be some suggestion that I was just making all these words up. But no, here it is on the internet. I honestly find living without the Robertson screw head a real pain. I am constantly shredding threads and that just isn’t possible with a Robertson. Icing sugar. I can live without that. 
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Here’s a link to a larger version of the image, with some really great discussion of the different terms! http://geekmom.com/2013/12/55-canadianisms/
For some reason that site shuts down my browser, so I just took a quick screenshot before it shut down.
It crashed on my ipad but I read the list and comments just now on the laptop. I think the funniest thing is when I use the word “skookum.” I have just moved from BC to NJ. They didn’t believe it was a word most Canadians know, so when my daughter came down we had to test her on that and many other words. She did not shame me but knew them all.
They are not all entirely Canadian. Your “pencil crayon” is just a “crayon” in England. “Donair” is not a Canadian invention but a variant of the Turkish doner kebab – “doner” is pronounced in Turkish like “donair”, not like “donna”, and in Turkey it doesn’t always contain lamb and comes with a variety of sauces. “Icing sugar” is 100% British as well, as is “whitener”, not always specified as non-dairy. So are “turfed out”, “serviette”, “queue”, “brown bread”, “pissed”, “dish cloth”. But I would say “thongs” for flip-flops is Australian. I’m not sure from the description if “take off” is the same in UK and Canada. The Canadian use of “college” seems to be spreading: it is now used for community colleges in USA and for technical colleges in the UK, and has long been used for similar institutions in Russia.
Anyway, I am mostly aware that I cannot use these British or Canadian terms here in the USA, in Virginia. Are you now in New Jersey? If so, not too far from us.
I am living a tricity life, Toronto, NJ and Vancouver. Hoping to sort out things this year and eventually be in NJ full time.