DCHP-3

mangeur de lard

Cdn French, Fur Trade, Hist.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1

in early use, an engage of the North West Company who signed on to man the canoes plying between Montreal and the Grand Portage, so called because pork was the staple of their diet, as opposed to the pemmican and coarser foods endured by winterers and others who ventured into the interior. Also mangeur du lard.

Quotations

1794
A strong contrary wind obliged us to put ashore on an Island in Lac de la Pluie, where the Mangeurs de Lard from the Fort passed us under Sail.
1884
They looked contemptuously on the voyageurs from Montreal to Grand Portage, whom they called "mangeurs de lard," pork eaters from the dried provisions used in the absence of game coming up the lakes.
1961
There was a day, no doubt, when Oiseau Rock echoed the voices of the "Mangeurs du Lard" as they sang their favorite songs. . . .
2

an inexperienced voyageur.

See: porkeater(def. 1b)

Quotations

1836
In our case, however, there was an unavoidable mixture of old hands and "mangeurs de lard," or green-horns; and there was scarcely one who had failed to take advantage of the last opportunity of getting drunk.
1843
[He was] the ablest mangeur de lard we have had in the country for a number of years.
1955
It was as significant as crossing the Equator; henceforth he and Henry might call themselves voyageurs; no longer were they still novices in northern travel, mere mangeurs de lard.
3 — Northwest

the men employed in operating rafts and barges, as distinct from the trappers and canoemen, who considered themselves much higher in station.

Quotations

<i>c</i>1902
That threw an army of some two thousand men--voyageurs, coureurs des bois, mangeurs de lard, famous hunters, traders, and trappers--on their own resources.
<i>c</i>1902
For the mangeurs de lard, as they called the fur company raftsmen, they had a supreme contempt.