Well attestedNamed from the place
Rocky Mountain canary
noun · first attested 1883
The bray of a pack donkey in a mining camp was nobody's idea of birdsong.
Slang for a burro.
44.1500°N -113.8000°W · Q5463
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1883
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Rocky Mountains
- In English
Rocky Mountain canary
Green's Dictionary of Slang records the phrase from 1883, when burros were the standard pack animal of Rocky Mountain mining camps. Animals turned loose when claims failed bred freely, and parts of Colorado still have wild burro herds living around old mining towns. Miners also called them Colorado mockingbirds.
Also pinned to Rocky Mountains
3 more from the same place
Rocky Mountain spotted feverThe disease named for the Rockies is now mostly a problem far from them.Rocky MountainsRocky Mountain Kool-AidFor decades it could not legally be sold east of the Mississippi, which is what made it worth smuggling.Rocky MountainsRocky Mountain oysterNothing about it comes from the sea, and that is the entire joke.Rocky Mountains
Canada
All 22 entries 18 more words from Canada
LabradorThe dog is named for a northern coast.LabradoralbertosaurThe dinosaur is named for a Canadian province.AlbertaThousand Island dressingThe dressing is named for an archipelago on the St Lawrence.Thousand IslandsAlberta clipperOne weather term, two borrowings: a Canadian province and a racing sailing ship.AlbertaAppalachian dulcimerIt is not a dulcimer: real dulcimers are struck, and this one is plucked.Appalachian MountainsCanada gooseIt is the Canada goose, never the Canadian goose, and many never see Canada.CanadaCanadian baconIn Canada it is just back bacon; the country in the name is an American addition.Canadago to HalifaxA polite way to say hell that points at a real town instead.Halifax