Words from Canada

The Canadians are of a leisurely disposition, going by some of the words they have given to English:

BEIGNET a deep-fried pastry

BOGAN a sluggish side-stream

LOGAN a backwater

POUTINE chips topped with curd cheese and gravy

RUBABOO soup made by boiling pemmican (shredded meat)

SNYE a side-channel of a river

So now we know Canadian eating habits – rubaboo followed by poutine with a beignet, probably eaten in some sort of sluggish backwater.

By Barry Grossman

Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

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