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From: hogg@utcsri.UUCP (John Hogg)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Americanisms and Canadianisms
Message-ID: <1828@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 09:52:27 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1828
Posted: Fri Dec 20 09:52:27 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 11:19:47 EST
References: <974@lsuc.UUCP> <8086@ucla-cs.ARPA> <912@psivax.UUCP>
Reply-To: hogg@utcsri.UUCP (John Hogg)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 20
Summary: 

About the supposedly archetypical Canadianism "hoser":

Until Doug and Bob Mackenzie appeared on the scene, I had never heard this
word before -- and I've lived here all my life.  Furthermore, I could not
find anybody who knew its derivation.  "One who hoses" sounds as good as
any, but then, "to hose" meaning "to cheat" was not in common Canadian (or
at least Ontarian) usage either.  And *nobody* said "Take off!" in the
pre-Mackenzie era!

And to correct the Canadianism list, chesterbeds have never been seen in
this part of the country.  We do have hide-a-beds and Murphy beds.
-- 

John Hogg
Computer Systems Research Institute, UofT
...utzoo!utcsri!hogg

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