Only the Queen speaks the Queen’s English these days. Wherever the language is spoken, regional words and phrases enter the lexicon, which is why the Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists over 2000 Canadian words you won’t find in the US. Many of these words will be perfectly understood in the UK, others not so much. Some examples:
All dressed: When a pizza or burger has all the toppings.
Bachelor: As in studio apartment, which is why “Bachelor to Rent” confuses American visitors.
Back bacon: Americans lovingly call this Canadian bacon
Blinds: Americans close the shades.
Brown bread: Whole wheat bread.
Butter tart: a type of pastry dessert
Caesar: Not your average Bloody Mary
Chesterfield: A type of sofa
Chinook: Warm dry wind not the salmon
Chips: As opposed to fries.
Coriander: Cilantro down south
Deke: A decoy
Double Double: From Tim Hortons, as in two milk and two sugar.
Eaves troughs: more commonly known as gutters
Garburator: the garbage disposal unit attached to the sink
Homo milk: Take your mind out the eaves troughs, homogenized milk is known as whole milk in the US.
Hydro: Electricity generated by, well…hydro.
Hoser: Not quite a redneck’s cousin.
Taps: What Americans might call a faucet.
Knapsack: The precursor to a man bag?
Loonie: One dollar coin
Mickey: A portion of liquor
Mountie: Always gets his/her man.
Parkade: Americans call that a parking garage
Pop: They pop balloons, but drink soda
Runners: Tennis shoes.
Serviette: A napkin
Skookum: When something is great.
Tights: American ladies call them pantyhose.
Timbits: Fried dough balls of goodness.
Toboggan: A sled
Toonie: Two dollar coin
Toque: A warm hat
Two-Four: A case of 24 beers
Washroom: Americans call it the Restroom.
Zed: No, Zed’s not dead baby, Zed’s not dead.
All this is not to say Americans won’t be able to figure it out, since Canadianisms are a lot easier than say, navigating Flemish in Belgium.
