DCHP-3

remittance man

Esp. West
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1 — Derog., Hist.

a person living in Canada on money remitted from his family in the Old Country, usually to insure that he did not return home to become a source of embarrassment.

Quotations

1896
There is a lass of men who are called . . . "Remittance-men" . . . always expecting a remittance in a few posts from the old country.
1911
About two miles from Poplar Grove was the preemption of Mr. Guy Pierce, another Englishman, but one who belonged to that class rather contemptuously regarded by their neighbors as "remittance men."
1957
"In the '80s," a Western pioneer recalled, "remittance men were as plentiful as gophers and just as unpopular."
1964
Contrary to popular belief, there were actually few remittance men on the [N.W.M.P.] force. . .
2 — Figurative uses.

Quotations

1912
"The timber wolf I trimmed out because he wasted around like a remittance man."
1963
Although the fairy shrimp is a fascinating creature to biologists, he is a sort of a remittance man of the animal world performing no very useful function in nature's scheme of things.