DCHP-3

Bostonnais

[< Cdn F Bostonais]
Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Spelling variants:
Bastonnais, Bostonais, Bostonnois

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1n.

a person from the United States; a United States citizen.

Quotations

1785
The Bostonnois, as the men call them, have a house here which contains a fine woman and some very fine children.
1808
The pious and loyal Canadian . . . remembers his wars with the Bostonnais.
1963
The Canadians were not moved to spring to arms against this renewed attack; in a quarrel of the English and the "Bastonnais," their interest was uncertain.
2n.

an American trader, especially on the Pacific Coast.

See: Boston pedlar(def. 1)

Quotations

1776
On my remarking to Mr. Frobisher, that I suspected the Bastonnais had been doing some mischief in Canada, the Indians directly exclaimed, "Yes; that is the name, Bastonnais."
1897
It is amusing to read that the American traders, who originally were chiefly from New England, were known by the savages of the Pacific coast as "Boston-men," even as the same enterprising traders were known to the French in Canada invariably as "Bastonnais."
1908
Shall we kill--is it good we kill--these Bostonais who come to take our lands?