Quick links
Jean Baptiste
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Spelling variants:Jean Batiste
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
a personification of the French Canadian.
Quotations
1818
The sharp, unchangeable lineaments of the French countenance, set off with a blue or red night-cap . . . give undeniable testimony of the presence of Jean Baptiste.
1832
Jean Baptiste is as frequently a nom de guerre for Canadian habitans, as John Bull is for the English, or Saunders for the Scotch.
1878
Your Jean Baptiste has a specially keen eye for a good stick of timber.
1960
These Nile men were rather the shanty-boy variety of Canadian riverman, just as much at home on certain Canadian rivers as Jean Baptiste had ever been but more skilled with the raft, the pike and the peavey than with the paddle and packsack.