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crawfish
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
n. — Gaspé peninsula, possibly elsewhere; derogatory, extremely offensive, historical, Ethnicities
(for Francophones in some regions) an Anglo-Canadian.
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — English-French tension has produced Canadianisms from a historical perspective ("Memorial") and as culturally significant in the history of Canada. The abusive term crawfish was spotted by Walter S. Avis, editor-in-chief of DCHP-1 in the 1970s, while collecting entries for a new edition of this dictionary which did not appear, mainly because of his early death, at 60, in 1979. Our only attestations come from the Avis files at Queen's University. It is unclear whether the term was only in use among Francophones in the Gaspé Peninsula, where René Lévesque grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, or had (or has) more widespread currency.
The term is included for reasons of historical accuracy and completeness. It is not intended, as clearly indicated in the usage labels "derogatory" and "extremely offensive", as a term for current use or a term, meaning or usage that is in any way condoned.
Quotations
1975
Réne Lévesque grew up in rural Gaspé, the son of a bibliophile lawyer. The area was settled by descendants of the United Empire Loyalists, and Lévesque recalls how there was “a running battle on between gangs of French-Canadian and English-Canadian kids. We had fistfights. They called us pea soupers and, for some unknown reason, we called them crawfish. It was all very colorful, and I don’t feel any resentment toward the English.”
1976
Rene Levesque remembers the town on the Bay of Chaleurs, with the hills of the wooded peninsula rolling up gently behind it, as a “paradise for kids.” Language was rarely a source of serious trouble, between the French-speaking “pea-soupers” and the English “crawfish,” particularly for a youngster who could slang away in both.
1976
Language was rarely a serious cause of trouble between the French-speaking ‘pea-soupers’ and the English ‘crawfish’…