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Burlington bun
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Non-Canadianism
This is a word that our editors have determined is not a Canadianism.
n. — Food
a jam-filled doughnut.
COD-1 and -2 both label Burlington bun as from Nova Scotia, with unknown origins. This term does not appear in any other dictionaries, and most newspaper quotations directly reference the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. In Canadian web domains, the term does not appear at all (see Chart 1), which suggests that the term is not widely used in Nova Scotia or elsewhere.
See COD-2, s.v. "Burlington bun", which is marked "Cdn (NS)". COD-2's assessment is not matched in our data.
See COD-2, s.v. "Burlington bun", which is marked "Cdn (NS)". COD-2's assessment is not matched in our data.
Quotations
1994
Growing up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia until the early '60s, we called such confections "Burlington Buns." I believe they were a yeast-type, rather than a cake donut. The sugar coating was sticky, rather than granulated.
1994
The editors of the Oxford Dictionary of Canadian English, a major project on target to be published in 1997, have been asking Canadians what they call a round doughnut filled with jam or jelly and dusted with sugar.
They've found a remarkable regional range of names.
People in Ontario and British Columbia mostly call it a "jelly doughnut" but some Ontarians, especially those of German descent, call it a "Berliner."
In Alberta and Saskatchewan it's called a "bismark."
In Manitoba the name is "jam buster" or "jelly buster" or just "buster."
In parts of Nova Scotia, it's called a "Burlington bun."
1998
"The words have been there all along," Barber said. "But we didn't know they were unique to just Canada."
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Some Canadianisms:
Depending on where you live, the humble jelly doughnut is known as: a jambuster, a bismarck, or a Burlington bun.
2001
During that heady year for lexicography, Katherine Barber, the dictionary's bubbly editor-in-chief, appeared on national TV, biting into a jelly doughnut and discoursing on how such pastries are also called jambusters, Burlington buns and bismarcks, depending on where you live.
References
- COD-1
- COD-2
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