For those interested in updating your speech rec parameters, SpinVox had compiled a list of popular US and Canadian slang. The company’s Voxgeist dictionary is tuned into a country’s ever-changing vernacular.
For your enjoyment, here are the Canadian words, ranked in order of popularity, after the jump.
1. Allophone –Someone whose first language is neither English nor French.
2. Ble d’Inde –corn on the cob
3. Bourassa – Robert Bourassa a former premier of Quebec
4. Cabot – Famous explorer of North America
5. Coulee – means to flow
6. Keener: A brown-noser whose excessive keen-ness for the unpleasant task at hand makes the rest of us look bad.
7. Loonie: the nic name for the Canadian $1 coin
8. Mickey: A mickey is one of those curved, flat, 13-ounce bottles of booze that winos carry.
9. Nanaimo – A type of chocolate bar, originally produced in the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia. It consists of a crumb-based layer, topped by a layer of light custard or vanilla butter icing, which is covered in soft chocolate.
10. Nunavut – newest Canadian territory , next to the North West Territories
11. Oolochan – small ocean fish
12. Poutine: Poutine is a cholesterol-rich Canadian “delicacy” consisting of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. When prepared badly, it congeals in your guts like concrete.
13. Toonie: the nick name for the Canadian $2 coin
14. Tourtiere – French meat pie
15. Sniggler: Someone who takes the parking spot you wanted, or is generally annoying
And the US words, which aren’t ranked:
- Diesel = a muscular man/women
- Hot Mess = person is a disaster
- Spun = crazed
- Busted/Hurt = extremely unattractive
- Ice/Bling = diamonds
- Shady = untrustworthy
- Woot/Stoked = excited
- One = I’m out; leaving
- Peace out = goodbye
- Props = respect
- Newbie = beginner, new kid on the block
- Blasted = to get in serious trouble.
- Scheisty = secretive amongst others
- Bluetool = someone who always wears a Bluetooth earpiece, even when they’re not on the phone
- Baller = wealthy
- Crunk = crazy drunk
- Celebutante = famous just for being wealthy
- Schlumpadinka = women who let their style go
- Multislacking = having two or more non-work related web pages open on your work computer at one time.
- Hola = greetings; hello
I like celebutante, but I’ve heard celebutard with greater frequency. Also, fun fact: they use hyphy instead of crunk on the west coast. At least in San Francisco.
Seriously that’s all they could come up with for Canadian slang? The definitions of a couple of food items that (sadly) are not available for pre-made purchase in the US? Also how is a the name of a new territory a slang word, obviously you’d want to make sure your recognizer could understand it, but new slang? I’d understand if they added Bob for Northwest Territories after the ‘rename Northwest Territories “contest” was scrapped because some joker submitted Bob and it had the 2nd highest vote getter, though I don’t know anyone who actually uses that as slang.