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Peg, the
Slang
DCHP-3 (Apr 2023)
abbreviation — Informal
a nickname for Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Type: 1. Origin — The nickname The Peg for the city of Winnipeg, capital of the province of Manitoba, has existed for over a century (see the 1910 quotation) and is used widely across Canada (see the 1989, 1990, 1998, 2008, 2014 and 2023 quotations).
Quotations
1910
Mr. Hurte thereupon lit a cigar and launched into a most amusing account of his doings in the Peg.
1936
. . . you have left Portage la Prairie behind, and are close to Winnipeg itself. The immediate approach to the 'Peg via Canadian National is slower and more interesting. . . .
1989
It's been a tough winter in the 'Peg. The Bombers have already lost assistant coaches Scott Schuhmann (also to Stanford) and Bruce Lemmerman. The loss of Riley, though, is a blow to the entire league. He was the CFL's shining young star and its nicest guy.
1990
Long before he broke into TV, however, he was leading a wacky rhythm-and-blues party band and claiming to be an Italian-born former pizza delivery guy from the wilds of the Peg's most maligned suburb, Transcona.
1998
In a couple of days, one of the premiere ballerinas of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will travel all the way from The Peg to Saint John to perform for a mere 15 minutes on the Imperial Theatre stage.
2008
WINNIPEG Oct. 16
Neil Young
Canada's distinctively iconic voice of protest is on the road again as his Chrome Dreams II tour rolls into the Peg, and continues on to Regina, Calgary and Vancouver. Tickets at www.ticketmaster.ca.
2008
How indeed, when there's something about the city - its position at the fork of "two mystically paired rivers, the bio-magnetic influence of our bison, the powerful northern lights" - that results in the most narcoleptic population on Earth. According to Maddin, the 'peg has 10 times the sleepwalking rate of any other city.
2014
The thing is, since I've been back on the coast, I have spent more hours of each day feeling chilled to the bone than I did during those weeks in the 'Peg.
It's that damp cold, you know. It's also the slow electrical heating systems and large picture windows so many houses here come equipped with. And, one brainy acquaintance who makes a point of knowing such things tells me, it's being at sea level. The air here, he says, is denser, so requires more energy to warm it.
References
Images
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 4 Apr. 2023.
