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pure laine
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:pur laine
1adj. — Quebec, Ethnicities
relating to Quebeckers descended from the French settlers of New France.
Type: 1. Origin — Pure laine is a French expression that is sometimes translated as "dyed in the wool" or "old stock," and which refers to the ancestry of the first French settlers. The 1870 quotation demonstrates an early use of the term in Canadian French, which was translated in the House of Commons debates as "pure". It is unclear when pure laine first began to be used in Canadian English, but the 1962 quotation comes from an English-language newspaper, albeit in a French phrase. Subsequent uses show that the term was transferred and integrated into Canadian English, at first needing English translation (e.g. the 1982 quotation), but later becoming a more fixed part of the lexicon (e.g. the 1997 and 2009 quotations do not add further explanation of the term). Boberg (2012: 497) lists pure laine as a product of contact-induced borrowing, a term that was "transferred from French-dominated provincial political discourse". The term is unique to Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "Cdn", and Gage-5, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "Cdn. French.", ITP Nelson, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "French. Quebec." and OED-3, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked as "Canad.".
See also COD-2, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "Cdn", and Gage-5, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "Cdn. French.", ITP Nelson, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked "French. Quebec." and OED-3, s.v. "pure laine", which is marked as "Canad.".
Note the borrowing of French syntactical structure in phrases such as "Quebecois pure laine" (e.g. the 1997 quotation), where the adjective is following the noun as in French, not vice versa as in English (see the 2009 quotation).
Quotations
1870
[He was a pure Frenchman, and he defied them to produce a more loyal man. (Il est un Français pure laine et il les met au défi de trouver un homme plus loyal.)]
1962
More and more our language is becoming Canadian born and bred or, as we say in French, du Canadien pure laine (pure wool Canadian).
1982
First, there is the undeniable fact that les Quebecois pure laine (pure-blooded French Canadians) are unbreeding themselves out of existence. The revenge of the cradle actually did work, for a while that is. From some 65,000 habitants at the time of the Conquest, francophone Canadians expanded to more than five million, and that is not counting the estimated two to three million descendants of emigrants living in New England, going back to the time when mill owners used to send wagons over the border to tour the farms and collect excess daughters from large families.
1997
I would adore to see him address a conference of North American Indians, telling them how Quebecois pure laine make up a nation, but not the Cree.
2009
And with the trade of Guillaume Latendresse, only two pure laine Quebecers remain: the struggling Maxim Lapierre and the suspended Georges Laracque.
2012
It was only a matter of time before the Quebec provincial election descended into the baiting of the pur laine vote, the wedge that last time around cut Jean Charest's Liberals to minority government and undercut Parti Quebecois support.
2013
They are quite willing to allow us to stay and putter around our little institutions as long as we don't pretend that we believe that the English-speaking community is as much a part of Quebec as the mythological 'pure laine.'
2015
By the 1990s, when Mr. Parizeau and the PQ were gearing for a second stab at a referendum, the concept of who was a Quebecker or Québécois had crystallized along civic rather than linguistic or ethnic lines.
The official line was that a Quebecker was whoever chose to live in Quebec.
Bernard Landry, who was then PQ vice-president, became the party's ambassador to ethnic communities. He was fond of saying that “pure laine belongs to the textile industry and not to Quebec sociology.”
Alas for Mr. Landry, his boss then fumbled. In January 1993, at a nomination meeting in Charlevoix riding, the PQ leader was talking about how the Charlottetown accord had been rejected in Quebec thanks mainly to francophone voters. He used "Québécois" to describe old-stock francophones.
The official line was that a Quebecker was whoever chose to live in Quebec.
Bernard Landry, who was then PQ vice-president, became the party's ambassador to ethnic communities. He was fond of saying that “pure laine belongs to the textile industry and not to Quebec sociology.”
Alas for Mr. Landry, his boss then fumbled. In January 1993, at a nomination meeting in Charlevoix riding, the PQ leader was talking about how the Charlottetown accord had been rejected in Quebec thanks mainly to francophone voters. He used "Québécois" to describe old-stock francophones.
2n. — Quebec, Ethnicities
a person descended from the French settlers of New France.
Type: 1. Origin — It appears that the adjectival use of pure laine preceded the noun use by a generation or so.
See also COD-2, s.v. "pure laine" (noun), which is marked "Cdn".
See also COD-2, s.v. "pure laine" (noun), which is marked "Cdn".
Quotations
1995
This time, a pure-laine is speaking, one of the pillars of Quebec theatre, the author of Being at Home with Claude and 13 other plays.
2000
I identify myself as a simple, plain-old French Canadian, born a pure laine. Like all Quebecers, I've lived at ground zero of this whole separation-referendum mess.
2000
According to one story making the rounds, prior to the introduction of outsize French sign lettering, one pure laine had stumbled into a butcher shop in quest of a haircut. A second story had it that another pure laine Mr. Magoo, in need of a new pair of shoes, had mistakenly drifted into a massage parlour, or so he told his wife.
References
- OED-3
- Boberg (2012)
- COD-2
- Gage-5
- ITP Nelson
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