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"Ripples They Cause in the World"

https://www.shadowcat.co.uk/2025/07/09/ripples-they-cause-in-the-world/
43•todsacerdoti•2h ago•10 comments

MCP-B: A Protocol for AI Browser Automation

https://mcp-b.ai/
226•bustodisgusto•10h ago•110 comments

Thunderbird 140 "Eclipse"

https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/07/welcome-to-thunderbird-140-eclipse/
29•TangerineDream•2d ago•12 comments

Tree Borrows

https://plf.inf.ethz.ch/research/pldi25-tree-borrows.html
495•zdw•18h ago•122 comments

A Typology of Canadianisms

https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/how-to-use
147•gnabgib•11h ago•149 comments

Generic interfaces

https://go.dev/blog/generic-interfaces
42•Merovius•2d ago•34 comments

Biomni: A General-Purpose Biomedical AI Agent

https://github.com/snap-stanford/Biomni
184•GavCo•14h ago•29 comments

Show HN: MCP server for searching and downloading documents from Anna's Archive

https://github.com/iosifache/annas-mcp
146•iosifache•12h ago•41 comments

Show HN: FlopperZiro – A DIY open-source Flipper Zero clone

https://github.com/lraton/FlopperZiro
266•iraton•15h ago•58 comments

The Origin of the Research University

https://asteriskmag.com/issues/10/the-origin-of-the-research-university
68•Petiver•3d ago•1 comments

The jank programming language

https://jank-lang.org/
310•akkad33•3d ago•81 comments

A fast 3D collision detection algorithm

https://cairno.substack.com/p/improvements-to-the-separating-axis
224•OlympicMarmoto•19h ago•27 comments

Show HN: BreakerMachines – Modern Circuit Breaker for Rails with Async Support

https://github.com/seuros/breaker_machines
22•seuros•3d ago•6 comments

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Memory Safety Sanitizers

https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/sp/2025/223600a088/21TfesaEHTy
23•signa11•2d ago•6 comments

Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS

https://github.com/kushalpandya/Petrichor
106•kushalpandya•11h ago•49 comments

Cmdk – CD anywhere and open anything in your terminal

https://github.com/mieubrisse/cmdk
9•mieubrisse•2d ago•6 comments

Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-billion-years-on-the-sun-is-having-a-moment
133•dmazin•20h ago•188 comments

Code and Trust: Vibrators to Pacemakers

https://punkx.org/jackdoe/code-and-trust.html
43•jackdoe•3d ago•27 comments

Configuring Split Horizon DNS with Pi-Hole and Tailscale

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/general/configuring-pihole-to-serve-different-records-to-different-clients.html
98•gm678•16h ago•28 comments

Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business

https://projectionlab.com/blog/we-reached-1m-arr-with-zero-funding
842•jonkuipers•2d ago•228 comments

Archaeologists unveil 3,500-year-old city in Peru

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07dmx38kyeo
152•neversaydie•3d ago•56 comments

German court rules Meta tracking technology violates European privacy laws

https://therecord.media/german-court-meta-tracking-tech
268•bundie•4h ago•115 comments

Linda Yaccarino is leaving X

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/technology/linda-yaccarino-x-steps-down.html
447•donohoe•18h ago•743 comments

I made a parody of enterprise AI chatbots

https://github.com/muratcanozdemir/chatgpt-parody
5•moezd•2h ago•1 comments

Ruby 3.4 frozen string literals: What Rails developers need to know

https://www.prateekcodes.dev/ruby-34-frozen-string-literals-rails-upgrade-guide/
225•thomas_witt•3d ago•112 comments

Xenharmlib: A music theory library that supports non-western harmonic systems

https://xenharmlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
175•retooth•1d ago•17 comments

Grok 4 Launch [video]

https://twitter.com/xai/status/1943158495588815072
164•meetpateltech•5h ago•102 comments

The most otherworldly, mysterious forms of lightning on Earth

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/lightning-sprites-transient-luminous-events-thunderstorms
98•Anon84•3d ago•32 comments

I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/07/07/copyleft.html
104•bpierre•10h ago•59 comments

HyAB k-means for color quantization

https://30fps.net/pages/hyab-kmeans/
38•ibobev•11h ago•10 comments
Open in hackernews

A Typology of Canadianisms

https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/how-to-use
147•gnabgib•11h ago
A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/

Comments

sophacles•11h ago
This is neat. It gave me a headache because my brain really wanted DCHP to be DHCP and it was confusing me... but the actual content is great.

Is there a similar dictionary for US midwesternisms, or Texisms, or really any region?

badc0ffee•10h ago
Seems very thorough.

I don't see "transport" or "transport truck" though. I think It's an Ontario expression and it sounds kind of weird to me as an Albertan.

MegaDeKay•9h ago
Never here that term used but I'm out west as well. We're all semi's, all the time.

"two-four" is there and can confirm that is more an eastern term as well. Never heard the term until I spent a year out in Ontario many years ago. Still hasn't really made its way to the west in all that time.

bethekidyouwant•9h ago
Yeah it’s a flat
dismalaf•8h ago
"Two-four" hasn't made its way out west because we call it a case of beer, and we already have "two-six", which is a 26oz bottle of liquor.
dmalik•1h ago
In Ontario "two-six" is called a twixer
jdougan•7h ago
It made some inroads in to BC in the 80s, mostly thanks to Bob and Doug McKenzie, but never really stuck.
jt2190•8h ago
This classification seems extremely arbitrary. What purpose, exactly, does this classification serve? What insights about “Canadian as she is spoke” do we learn by using this?
allenu•6h ago
There must be so many tiny little differences like this. I remember when I lived in Toronto for a bit that the way they phrased whether you wanted a fast food order to eat at the restaurant or to take home was a little different from in Alberta. I know in Alberta, they would ask "to stay, or to go?" when ordering, but in Toronto I think it was "for here or to go?" which is how I've heard it phrased in the U.S. as well.

Totally minor difference, but it did feel jarring when I heard it differently from the first time as someone who grew up in Alberta.

bawolff•9h ago
Americans dont use the term "pencil crayons"???

What do you call them?

cka•9h ago
Colored pencils
pards•9h ago
pencils of color :)
wild_egg•4h ago
Pencils experiencing colourfulness
joshdavham•8h ago
That also blew my mind.
NikolaNovak•6h ago
One of the frequent debates with my wife lol... "But they are not crayons" does not help my case at all :-)
umanwizard•5h ago
Crayons are the fat sticks of wax (e.g. Crayola brand). Colored pencils are, well, colored pencils.

There are also various different ways to pronounce “crayon”; is that also true in Canada? For example I pronounce it with one syllable: “cran”, just like the beginning of “cranberry”. I get the feeling that’s not the majority pronunciation but it’s not exactly rare either (at least where I grew up).

pasc1878•3h ago
Same in UK for what they are ie sticks of wax (They can be thin for cheap ones that break)

In UK it is two syllables.

umanwizard•2h ago
FWIW I’m American. According to the “Harvard Dialect Survey” which I found on Google, about 14% of people in the US pronounce it like I do and most of the rest with two syllables.
emptybits•2h ago
In a feeble attempt to rationalize the Canadianism "pencil crayon"...

Pencils have cores based on graphite or charcoal.

Pencil crayons have cores based on wax or oil, with pigments added. This is basically the composition of crayons or pastels. Then it's wrapped in wood like a pencil. Thus ... "pencil crayon".

pcthrowaway•1h ago
Wait, coloured pencils aren't actually pencils?

I've never heard Pencil Crayon, in British Columbia, but then again I did live in the U.S. for all of my school years.

sheepscreek•9h ago
Washroom vs. bathroom: I’ve always found it strange to call a room a “bathroom” if it doesn’t have a shower or tub. On the other hand, most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands. Although these facilities serve similar purposes, the former is used for public spaces, while the latter is found inside homes.
trashchomper•9h ago
As an Australian I always find it funny going places and having to remember which dance-around word everyone uses for "toilet". Washroom, restroom, bathroom, there's so many!
ajdude•9h ago
Don't forget water closet!
xeonmc•6h ago
Not to be confused with Tungsten Carbide, a ceramic used for abrasives and ballpoint pen tips.
kurtis_reed•9h ago
Toilet is the object, not the room it's in
KayEss•8h ago
Only in some parts of the world. In many it's the room and the object
xattt•7h ago
Soviet apartments had a separate rooms for the toilet and the area with a bath/shower/sink. The area behind the toilet was usually a hinged wall that could be opened to reveal the entry point for utilities.

I assume toilet hands were an unspoken issue, because there was no possible way to traverse from the toilet room to the washroom without touching anything.

For a complete tangent, I’ll mention that Soviet toilets had a “poop shelf” so that people could eyeball their stool to gauge their health. One flaw of this design is that there was no odour suppression offered by toilets that immediately immerse stool in water.

shawn_w•3h ago
I believe German toilets have the same shelf.
SECProto•7h ago
> Toilet is the object, not the room it's in

Meaning 1a is the object, 1b is the room. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toilet

pcthrowaway•1h ago
And the last 2-bed apartment I rented was a scam, the rooms didn't even come with beds.
pards•9h ago
other notables include the loo, the can, the john, and of course the dunny
gerdesj•8h ago
Toilet, bog or lav in the UK are some options.

The easy to remember terms and will work nearly anywhere without giving offence are: "loo" in a residential property or "gents/ladies" for a non-residential property.

xeonmc•6h ago
and also the lavatory
bcoates•7h ago
'Toilet' itself is a euphemism, an archaic term for dressing/washing room and/or the act of washing up
mitthrowaway2•5h ago
It was pretty surprising to be reading some old books on Project Gutenberg and seeing the word "toilet" being used meaning "outfit" or "wardrobe".
umanwizard•5h ago
“Toilette” is still used that way in normal everyday French. “Je fais ma toilette” - I’m washing up/getting ready/getting dressed/doing my morning hygiene routine/etc.
koakuma-chan•8h ago
I use washroom and bathroom interchangeably.
Forricide•6h ago
This one (among others) does really fascinate me. Maybe it’s due to spending a lot of time around diverse groups of people but I’ve never really seen a huge distinction between these words. Washroom, bathroom, toilet, I and everyone I know pretty much would use interchangeably? Or at least wouldn’t blink at someone else using them.

Restroom, and a variety of others, might be slightly more usage specific but still… wouldn’t be unexpected or weird, I’d say?

SecretDreams•5h ago
Animal shithouse
zahlman•3h ago
> most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands.

I think only people of a very specific upbringing ever call it that here. Certainly nobody in my circles would.

bee_rider•9h ago
I’m very upset to hear that

> While brown bread may have contained some molasses in the early 1900s, post-WWII it was usually made without. So Canadian brown bread is, unlike Boston-style bread, not sweet (see the 1909 quotation) and also distinct from Irish brown bread, though the latter may have inspired it.

Brown bread is sweet, and you are supposed to cut it up into little hockey pucks and toast it. It is the perfect shape when it comes out of the can.

throaway5454•9h ago
Can? Where in Canada is this canned brown bread at?
wobblyasp•9h ago
We call it spoon bread in the east. True spoon bread is baked in an old tin can. Not sweet.
bee_rider•8h ago
It isn’t, apparently, that’s what I’m upset about. Canada and New England are supposed go way back, longer than the countries. But apparently we didn’t share our bread technology advances.
rapind•8h ago
I've had it. You're really not missing out. I always assumed it was a depression era thing (canned bread!).
bee_rider•8h ago
> I always assumed it was a depression era thing (canned bread!).

1860’s apparently.

https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Number-of-Historical-...

> You're really not missing out.

It it rare in matters of taste to be able to say it, but you sir or madam are objectively incorrect!

Ok well, maybe that is a bit over the top. But anyway, since it comes in a can, hopefully anyone curious can just try it. Pop it in the toaster oven, put some cream cheese on it, and have it for breakfast. It is a treat, IMO.

SECProto•7h ago
That's a weird (or perhaps regional) definition. Brown bread I've had is always molasses sweetened. Source: ontario and provinces east.

The boston canned brown bread i always assumed was a touristy thing, not something regularly consumed.

nucleardog•7h ago
Lived in BC, SK, and ON. I'm far enough east that I regularly hit up both Ottawa and Montreal.

In my experience "brown bread" is a synonym for whole wheat bread. If you go order a sandwich and they ask what bread you want it on and you say "brown", you're getting whole wheat (or maybe 60% whole wheat... just not white).

I'd be very confused if I ever got this molasses-sweetened bread everyone is talking about.

qualeed•7h ago
BC, AB, ON. Same as you, brown bread = whole wheat. Not sure I've even heard of molasses-sweetened bread, let alone eaten it.
switchbak•4h ago
https://www.crosbys.com/sarahs-molasses-brown-bread/

It’s made with ungodly amounts of molasses. My grandmother used to make it with lard or shortening, yikes.

SECProto•7h ago
Yeah when I think further on it, I've never heard of it here in Ontario. In Atlantic Canada though, it's definitely made with molasses. Google search results [1] suggests this is a regionalism (Atlantic Canada and new england states)

If I was offered brown bread and got a boring whole wheat, I'd be sorely disappointed.

[1] https://my-mothers-cook-books.ca/2021/05/29/brown-bread-vs-p...

switchbak•4h ago
Nova Scotian here: it’s definitely made with molasses. It’s really moist and doughy when it’s fresh. Goes very well when dipped in a chowder.

Or do like my Mom did: mix a little peanut butter with molasses into a slurry on top.

All of this will kill you, of course, but it does taste good!

bee_rider•6h ago
I found a sort of fun blog post that points out that technically, it could be considered a pudding rather than a bread, because it is steamed rather than baked.

https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Number-of-Historical-...

Although the consistency is more like a dense, very moist bread. It wouldn’t be great for a conventional sandwich. Could reasonably steal the English muffin’s job, though. Or a regular muffin. Maybe a bit messier.

bee_rider•6h ago
My family were definitely not tourists, but come to think of it I don’t recall seeing the canned stuff in my friends’ houses. So maybe we were just locals who fell for a prank that was being played on the tourists, or something.
drdec•6h ago
Massachusetts native, we regularly are brown bread from a can as a kid. Not a touristy thing.
neurobashing•9h ago
Sad to not see "dart" in there, I assumed from Letterkenny that it was a regular Canadianism. Perhaps it's too new?
wobblyasp•9h ago
Darts an old one. At least since my parents age.
jdougan•9h ago
Apparently originated in Australia, though it is definitely an established usage in Canada. I seem to recall hearing that usage in Vancouver in the 90s.

https://gikken.co/mate-translate/blog/from-darts-to-cigarett...

throaway5454•9h ago
Popularized by Trailer Park Boys in the 2000s, if not well before
xutopia•8h ago
As a Nova Scotian I can tell you it was present before 2000s... at least 90s.
rapind•8h ago
We called em darts when I was in highschool back in the 90s.
floren•8h ago
I don't remember darts as much on TPB... the phrase "Corey, Trevor, two smokes, let's go" stands out.
olalonde•3h ago
Another Trailer Park Boys classic: "That's the way she goes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65w7ha4DZKo

joshdavham•8h ago
"Dart" is absolutely still used. "Eh bud. Can I bum a dart from ya?"
throaway5454•9h ago
Chesterfield, serviette?
joshdavham•8h ago
I wish they would've explained the term "soaker" a bit better as it's such a Canadian thing.

Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.

chongli•7h ago
Wow! I remember getting soakers as a kid! I had no idea it was a Canadianism!
SecretDreams•5h ago
In Southern Ontario, it feels like it's soakers all winter long!
zahlman•3h ago
I can relate to the experience, but never even thought of having a word for it...
joshdavham•8h ago
Probably one of my favorite commonly-used Canadian slang is "to chirp someone". It's a term that's frequently used in hockey circles, but more generally means to make fun of someone in a banter-y kind of way.
dismalaf•8h ago
Nah if you say someone chirped you say, on the street or in a pub, it's fighting words...
mikepurvis•8h ago
Having courtside seats at a basketball game means getting to listen to the players chirp each other.
RandallBrown•6h ago
It might be more popular in Canada but I think "chirping" is pretty common in the US.
canucker2016•5h ago
For chirping, I'll bring up Shoresy, spin off of Letterkenny TV show, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoresy

The film Slapshot with hockey banter/ribbing (at a Gilmore Girls-type pace).

bardak•8h ago
The one subtle difference I've noticed between Canadian and American English is on school grades. American say "first grade" where as Canada say "grade one".
gpm•7h ago
Toronto here, I think approximately I'd say first-sixth grade, and grade 7-12. Grade one just sounds wrong though.
wk_end•7h ago
Odd, I grew up in Toronto and Grade 1 sounds fine to me.
fsckboy•2h ago
in the US, people tend to say "first grade", but if you say "grade 1" nobody would blink, people say it all the time, teachers, administrators, etc.
suddenlybananas•2h ago
Well, Toronto is ground zero for Americanization. First grade sounds super American to my ear, I'd never say it over grade one.
scarecrw•8h ago
I'll have to go through this with my family; we have a number of terms we use that we're never sure if they're Canadian, non-regional uncommon words, or just things our family say.

My grandpa called toonies "bearbucks", which isn't listed, but is in one of the quotes on the toonie entry. No listing for "reef" as in yanking on something, though I don't know if that's a Canadianism or not.

wredcoll•7h ago
You reef lines (ropes) on a boat.
throw0101a•7h ago
You reef sails (by using lines):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefing

MegaDeKay•5h ago
Never heard of bearbucks but can confirm that "reefing" is pulling hard on something.
PieUser•8h ago
"upload" and "download" are interesting to me, which, in addition to the standard meaning, refer to the transfer of costs/jurisdiction to a higher and lower level of government respectively (between provincial and federal for instance)
nucleardog•7h ago
Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.

Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French).

And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".

Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they attribute that to it having been "seeded" by some Hudson's Bay advertisements run at their original 6 locations all in Western Canada.

Some other words/terms that surprised me: renoviction, gong show, kerfuffle, off-sale, stagette

jdougan•7h ago
I (West Coast) pretty much entirely associate "all-dressed" with potato chips.
c-hendricks•6h ago
The Works is usually a the name for the pizza. Chiming in for the east coast, all dressed is chips.
nucleardog•6h ago
Yeah, mostly came as a surprise to me because I've spent most of my time in Saskatchewan and Ontario near the Quebec border. I somehow managed to spend my entire life bouncing around Canada and never spend much time anywhere where "all dressed pizza" didn't exist, even though it's apparently a highly-specific term.
tomjakubowski•4h ago
The Works is pretty common in the US, too. Pizza and sandwich toppings
embedded_hiker•6h ago
There are several parking structures called "parkades" in Salem Oregon.
pjot•6h ago
A “fully dressed” poboy in New Orleans is one with all the fixing’s
nucleardog•4h ago
Huh, that makes sense given "all dressed" came from French and New Orleans' French history.

I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about that outlier.

zahlman•3h ago
> I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dress

> 4. (also figuratively) To adorn or ornament (something). [from 15th c.]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/garnish

> 1. To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.

(Bonus: "garnish" is etymologically related to "warn". There are many such other pairs in English, e.g. "guarantee" / "warranty" and "guard" / "ward". (As I understand it: the Gauls could pronounce the "g", but the Franks couldn't.)

marctrem•6h ago
In Quebec French we use “toute garnie” to refer to a pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperonis.
chongli•5h ago
Here in Ontario English we call that pizza deluxe!
nucleardog•4h ago
Depends where in Ontario!

I'm in Ontario but in a heavily French area (i.e., East of Ottawa) and "toute garni / all dressed" is common. You'll find it places like Ottawa as well given the proximity to Quebec and French population.

fracus•4h ago
That is what OP said. "All dressed" is a direct translation from French.
olalonde•3h ago
Yes, they both refer to the same pizza. Many francophones actually say "une pizza all dress" - it refers to that specific combination of toppings though, not literally every available topping.
SecretDreams•5h ago
Old, but good, CBC documentary on this type of thing:

https://youtu.be/eIoTpkM5N64?si=FnGploZrLZ1XRVXO&utm_source=...

asplake•4h ago
Kerfuffle is British - quite common here. 19th century Scots apparently!
zahlman•3h ago
> Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.

What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:

> An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]

I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.

--

"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).

"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.

I can easily find "kerfuffle" in supposedly American online dictionaries so I think their claim is rather dubious. On the flip side, I've never in my life heard "off-sale"; and in Ontario it's only quite recently (https://www.ontario.ca/document/alcohol-master-framework-agr... https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003988/ontario-consumers...) that you can even legally purchase beer and wine at a grocery store.

goodcanadian•1h ago
I've never in my life heard "off-sale" . . .

Off-sale has long been used in Alberta. I have a memory of asking my parents what it meant when I was a kid (and I am in my 40s, now).

jdougan•7h ago
I'm pleased to see some of the Chinook jargon is there.
switchbak•4h ago
Skookum as frig!

Actually they should just watch a few AvE videos, he’s a goldmine for old Canadian lingo.

jdougan•3h ago
I still use "saltchuck" when I'm distracted. Confuses the heck out of Californians.
emptybits•2h ago
I've seen Chinook words used in California, both in place names and businesses. Skookum, Siwash, Tyee, etc.

Definitely less common than in BC/WA/OR though.

Klahowya tillicum!

wk_end•7h ago
Even though I lived in the US for a decade, it still surprises me to learn that certain words are Canadianisms. I wonder how often people had no idea what I was talking aboot and just didn't speak up.
Cthulhu_•1h ago
I strongly suspect most language / communication is clear from inference and context, and the exact words used aren't super important unless they are really out there or a different language entirely. It's the same with learning a foreign language (english in my case), you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.
darkwater•31m ago
> you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.

Yes. Unless you are like me, you think you are good at inferring from context, never lookup a word in the dictionary and think for a few years it means something while it actually means the opposite.

allenu•6h ago
I always loved the term "keener" growing up and was disappointed that it wasn't a term of use down here in the States. It's essentially the same thing as a "brown-noser" but a little less graphic.
jdougan•4h ago
A little less derogatory, in my estimation.
CoastalCoder•6h ago
As American who's recently discovered Corner Gas, I just learned that nearly every resident of Saskatchewan is named "Jackass".
no_ja•6h ago
Discussions of healthcare facilities always get me in Canada. Grew up in the states, but born in Canada, when you have to use the emergency room it’s said that “they went to Hospital” as opposed to “they went to ‘the’ hospital”. No one up here ever seems to see the oddity of always referring to multiple different hospitals as the singular Hospital.
jt2190•5h ago
“They went to hospital” is a Britishism and definitely not something you’ll hear all the time in Canada.
samplatt•4h ago
Confirming britishism - both are in use here in Australia.
umanwizard•5h ago
In America you do something similar with school. I went to school (not “the school”).
jdougan•3h ago
Also varies by region in the US for referring to highways. In Southern California it is usually "the I-5" while on the other coast you will hear a plain "I-95".
umanwizard•3h ago
I’m from Arizona and I don’t think this is settled law here. I’m just as likely to say the 10, the I-10, or just I-10.
fsckboy•2h ago
>In Southern California it is usually "the I-5"

in LA it's most definitely "the 5" and state highways are also named with their numbers with no distinguishing. it's all "the N"

anon7725•1h ago
I think Americans have the most variety of names for roads - kind of like the Inuit have many ways to talk about snow.

Parkway, Freeway, Highway, Tollway, Expressway, Interstate, Byway, etc

BJones12•5h ago
I usually hear "they went to emerg(e?)"
fracus•4h ago
I've never heard a fellow Canadian say "to hospital" over "to the hospital", in person, or on TV.
michaelmior•6h ago
As a Canadian who married an American and now lived in the US, I was surprised how many things I say are Canadianisms without me having realized. There have been a lot of (minor) miscommunications because I didn't realize I was saying something only Canadians understand. Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
Forricide•6h ago
I always assumed we just called it hydro in BC because so much of the power comes from hydroelectric, but then I moved and it seems we call it hydro everywhere no master source..?
standeven•6h ago
I think it’s primarily BC and Ontario. And maybe a French version in Quebec.
Forricide•6h ago
That would definitely make the most sense. It’s also hydro in Quebec (hydro-Québec).
umanwizard•5h ago
Hydro-Québec is the name of the power company there so I’m guessing it is.
skipants•4h ago
I think it's pretty common in Western Canada. Definitely the norm in Manitoba.
dledesma•6h ago
I've had to explain to an Albertan friend that hydro meant power, they mostly use coal out there from what I understand.
osigurdson•4h ago
Alberta doesn't use any coal actually.
zahlman•3h ago
They have only recently finished phasing out coal, such that it appears in last year's statistics. And it's still mostly natural gas, i.e. a fossil fuel.

https://www.aeso.ca/aeso/understanding-electricity-in-albert...

retrac•3h ago
Hydroelectric was historically even more dominant in Canada than today. In places that aren't majority hydro now, they were in the past, like in Ontario and Alberta.

The name of the utility companies in most provinces was probably an influence. Until 1999 in Ontario it was the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, shortened normally to Ontario Hydro. Manitoba Hydro. Hydro Quebec. I think in Toronto they still stamp manhole covers with THES (Toronto Hydro-Electric System).

throwawaymaths•3h ago
do people look at you puzzled when you say "keener"?
kashunstva•3h ago
> Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.

When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.

regus•6h ago
I have a sure fire method for detecting Canadians out in the wild. Pay close attention to how they pronounce the word “resources”. If you hear the letter Z in there then they are probably Canadian.
umanwizard•5h ago
Also if they refer to a washroom instead of a bathroom or restroom.
MegaDeKay•5h ago
Your method wouldn't detect me. But you'd get me when I pronounced "Z" as "Zed".
tricolon•4h ago
Mine's listening for proe-ject instead of prah-ject.
__turbobrew__•2h ago
Do you call program “prah-gram”? Do you call pro shops at the golf course “prah shops”? I will die on the proe-ject hill.
chmwils•5h ago
Disappointed there's no ginch/gonch/gotch/gitch: https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/nincf2/gotchies_got.... Closest is gotchies for a wedgie. How can we contribute?
frankus•4h ago
My favo(u)rite Type 1 has got to be “whippersnipper” (string trimmer).
throwawaymaths•3h ago
as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.
zahlman•3h ago
That's the first gloss DeepL gives me for it. I've never before in my life heard "pastèque" and I doubt I'll remember it.
SteveVeilStream•3h ago
Love to see Skookum in there.
superconduct123•2h ago
Is that in all of canada or just west coast
beloch•2h ago
It's mostly West coast. Origin is Pacific West Coast pidgin (Chinook). Some people in Yukon and the prairies use it, but it becomes rarer the further you are from B.C.. It has become more widely used in recent years though.
fsckboy•3h ago
title? this is a full Dictionary of Canadianisms, words included according to a six facet typology. i.e. the typology is not the main story.

Type 1 – Origin: a form and its meaning were created in what is now Canada

Type 2 – Preservation: a form or meaning that was once widespread in many Englishes, but is now preserved in Canadian English in the North American context or beyond; sometimes called “retention”

Type 3 – Semantic Change: forms that have undergone semantic change in Canadian English

Type 4 – Culturally Significant: forms or meanings that have been enshrined in the Canadian psyche and are widely seen as part of Canadian identity

Type 5 – Frequency: forms or meanings that are Canadian by virtue of frequency

Type 6 – Memorial: forms or meanings now widely considered to be pejorative

Non-Canadian: forms or meanings once thought to be Canadian for which evidence is lacking

physix•3h ago
Take off, eh!

It's missing.

kashunstva•2h ago
Significant pronunciation differences are related, but not covered in this list.

For example, in Ontario (perhaps elsewhere in Canada) the word asphalt is pronounced like “ash fault” (ˈæʃfɑlt) as opposed to U.S. pronunciation like “ass fault.” (ˈæsfɔlt)

Also “pasta” is often ˈpæstə as opposed to ˈpɑstə in American English.