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double-double
DCHP-2 (Sep 2017)
Spelling variants:double double
n. — Food & Drink
a cup of coffee with two servings of cream and sugar.
Type: 1. Origin — The term originates with Tim Hortons coffee chain (see Image 1), a Canadian doughnut and coffee franchise. Originally founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ont., by former Toronto Maple Leafs defender Tim Horton and Ron Jocye, it was called "Tim Horton's". While the apostrophe was later dropped, the coffee franchise became synonymous with Canada in many contexts (Joyce and Thompson 2006: 232-233). By the turn of the millennium, the chain had been embraced by large portions of the Canadian population in a rare act of identity creation involving a low-cost coffee franchise. Other terms such as "triple-triple" (three sugars and creams) and "4x4" (four sugars and four creams) also exist, but are not as popular. Today, double-double is still mostly associated with the coffee franchise (see Image 1 where the term is used for the promotion of a Tim Hortons credit card). The association is strong, to the extent that it is used in attacks against the chain (see the 2012 quotation). Occasionally it can be found outside of a Tim Hortons context, but this process of semantic generalization does not seem to have taken place widely at this point. Image 2 offers evidence for the term's enregisterment (Agha 2006) in popular culture.
See also COD-2, s.v. "double-double", which is marked "Cdn".
See also COD-2, s.v. "double-double", which is marked "Cdn".
Quotations
1985
Beans drank his coffee black, but Double-Double liked two creams and two sugars. He stirred slowly, careful not to spill into the saucer, then drained the cup in three or four gulps.
1987
Three customers soon took their usual places at the formica counter where Arty served up coffees, double-double, before clambering back to his perch on a padded stool.
1997
[...] this unbelievable province-wide addiction to Tim's -- "I'll take a large double double."
There are other things that, unfortunately, set Nova Scotia apart [...]
2000
We arrange to meet at Tims or ask a friend to bring us a medium double double from the drive through window.
2002
"Tim Hortons coffee," he says. "A blueberry bran muffin was a close second, but what I really wanted was a Tim Hortons, large, double double."
2003
While John McKenna rolled up to a Tim Hortons drivethrough Thursday morning in Cornwall, a police officer, also in line for a double double, learned McKenna's wheels were hot.
2008
According to chief engineer Shinichi Yasui, the plant in Cambridge had considerable input in the design; as a result, the pedals are spaced to accommodate winter boots (men's 10 1/2, specifically), the door pockets hold an ice scraper, and yes, the cupholders really are sized to fit a double-double from Timmy's.
2012
Kung said the employer received about $4,000 a month in rent by doubling up the rooms and doubling the rents.
“When Tim Hortons advertises the double-double, I don’t believe this is what most Canadians had in mind," Kung said in a statement released on Friday morning.
He alleged the employees were also subject to racist comments at work.
"Derogatory racist comments included '[expletive] Mexican workers are lazy' and 'Mexican idiots,' while the employer described himself as the owner of their lives," said Kung.
2015
If that sounds like a long haul, consider that it's no longer than it will take you to drink a large double-double.
2017
[Clerk]: "What can I get for you, sir?" [Customer, male, c. 50]: "Small double-double."
References
- Joyce & Thompson (2006)
- COD-2
- Agha (2006)
Images
Image 1: A Tim Hortons double-double. Photo: B. Ford
