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down-island
DCHP-3 (Apr 2025)
Spelling variants:down-Island, down island, "down island", down Island
The fully contracted form downisland is still very rare.
1aadv. — especially British Columbia, Geography
moving further south on Vancouver Island.
Type: 5. Frequency — This term, meaning moving southward on an island, has been appropriated to Vancouver Island, the 460-km-long island off British Columbia's West Coast. In this function, it has a long pedigree going back to at least the 1960s (see the 1966 quotation).
The term down-island appears to be a Canadianism not only by semantic change (tied to Vancouver Island) but also, more generally, by virtue of frequency (see Chart 1).
COD-2 marks the term "Cdn (BC)". The term is not listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.
The term down-island appears to be a Canadianism not only by semantic change (tied to Vancouver Island) but also, more generally, by virtue of frequency (see Chart 1).
COD-2 marks the term "Cdn (BC)". The term is not listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.
See: up-island
Quotations
1966
Either way you can travel down-island to Victoria...or branch off at Nanaimo for Vancouver on the mainland.
1987
Right now, Mr. Rippingale is transporting the barnacles by car to a licenced processing plant down island.
1994
When medical attention or other services not available in their community is required, they travel "down island."
2000
The tour kicks off at 11:45 a.m. at the ambulatory care entrance to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (at Dufferin Street) on Monday, Feb. 14. It then makes its way down-Island, arriving in Duncan about 3:30 p.m.
2005
“Our golf coach wasn’t a golf coach,” she said. “He didn’t tell us what we were doing wrong, and I got into some bad habits.” Wiens tidied up her swing, and headed down-island to Victoria for the 100th edition of the B.C. Women’s Amateur Open last month.
2006
My husband closed his dental clinic early and drove five hours down island from Port McNeill to meet me, and our friends brought us dinner.
2007
Keith Elvers is skipping a Kamloops rink at the B.C. masters men's championship, which begins Friday at the Parksville Curling Club.
Down island, Salmon Arm's Jennifer Gerow will skip a Kamloops- area team at the provincial juvenile girls championship, also beginning Friday at the Cowichan Lake Curling Club.
2011
The Tyees will face off at home against Parksville this Saturday before heading down Island to play in Victoria on Sunday.
2016
When the woman performed at the closing concert, someone FaceTimed her family in Austin to show them that she was OK. After that, someone else drove her down-Island and plunked her on the Mill Bay ferry.
1badj. — especially British Columbia, Geography
from a more southern part of Vancouver Island.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — The adjectival function seems to be a much more recent development compared to the adverbial use in meaning 1a.
See: up-island
Quotations
2000
The Ravens final pool game was against Island League rivals Peninsula. Campbell River made short work of the down-Island team leading by period scores of 2-0 and 6-1.
2005
After big car turnout for the first Stock car race in Victoria three weeks ago, it's hoped that a number of the down Island cars will make the tow to Black Creek now that races for the class are the same at both tracks.
2012
Two teams from Port Hardy, two from Port McNeill and a Port Alice side took to the ice along with the down-island representatives for a two-day, round-robin format tourney with an emphasis on fun for the competitors.
2015
U16 Riptide forward Carsyn Casperie lunges for the ball in front of the Saanich Fusion net during Saturdays 2-1 victory over the down-Island squad in Vancouver Island Premier League play at Pinecrest School.
2020
Club president Adam Ireton said the bonspiel was "Really good, we had 16 teams play this year, which is a little bit smaller than before as we only had seven teams from down island, but we had good local support and the prize table was really fantastic and lots of fun both nights at the bar."
References
- COD-2
- Merriam-Webster Unabridged
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