So what’s up with the name, eh? “The Great Escape, Eh?!”
If you’ve ever spoken with a Canadian there’s a pretty good chance at some point in the conversation they’ve said, “eh”, and then you asked, “So are you Canadian or what?” “Yes, yes I am, eh!” (and I do say it all the time!). ☺ But what’s with, “The Great Escape”?
If you happened by my About Us page I’d mentioned that this whole blog idea was Jeff’s. True story, he gets the credit. Once we put the stake in the ground and decided to sell our home and move back to Canada we found that there was SO much to do and plan and co-ordinate and SO much that tripped us up, it was one day in the midst of one of these “things” he said (okay so he actually swore really loud in typical Jeff fashion loaded with LOTS of four-letter-friend-getters lol…), “You should start a f**king blog with all this sh*t!”. “For F*** sakes!”. And off he went, then turned and hollered, “And call it “The Great Escape!!”, and stormed off. Hmmm, okay.
Other than our kids and siblings, Jeff’s mom and a couple close friends we never told anyone what we were up to. Of course we told our neighbors before the “For Sale” sign went up but otherwise kept our mouths shut until the house sold and stuff became real.
And oh boy did it, and as we started to tell our friends and relatives what we were doing the response more often than not was, “Oh I see, you’re escaping aren’t you?!” A few people even said, “Oh yeah, I get it, the great escape”. And there you have it, I couldn’t argue the name and “The Great Escape” was born, eh? ☺
So where did “Eh” come from anyways?
“Eh” is a classic Canadianism that’s used heavily in everyday conversation up here. I think we use it so much we don’t even think about it, I know for sure I do. Since I’m using it my blog name I thought I’d share a little bit of history on where it actually came from.
Early Years
Its first known use pre-dates Canadian Confederation (July 1, 1867), where it’s used in an Irish play from around 1773 called “She Stoops to Conquer”. Written by Oliver Goldsmith, this play is famously known for the phrase, “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no fibs” (modern day English has swapped ‘fibs’ for ‘lies’).
“Eh” is used a few times throughout the play with the most notable line from Mr. Hastings being:
“Wasn’t it lucky? eh!”.
Miss Hardcastle uses it a couple of times in the play as well but she uses it at the beginning of her sentences:
“Eh, why don’t you move?”
“Eh! you have frozen me to death again”
Set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Thomas Chandler Haliburton’s book “The Clockmaker; or The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville” uses “eh” quite a bit throughout the story. Published in 1836, it seems those two little letters have been a part of Canadian English ever since.
Modern Day
Skip ahead to the 1970’s. Everyone’s saying it and nobody’s thinking much of it, it’s just part of our everyday language by now. I know I’ve always said “eh” and never really gave it a second thought (until now though that I’m reading and writing about it! ).
Time Magazine published an article in 1971 called, “Canadian English: It’s a little different, eh?” which discusses “eh” as being a true Canadianism. There’s been any number of papers published amid a few public debates arguing whether or not it is or it isn’t (a Canadianism) but, I’ll take Merrian-Webster’s and the Cambridge dictionary’s word for it that says it is, eh? ☺
It was early in the 1980’s that Bob and Doug McKenzie first appeared on our TV’s in the sitcom Great White North. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas played on screen brothers, entertaining us in their toques and big winter coats, chugging beer and having a smoke and going off about the twist off caps on beer, or why they make the parking spaces at the donut shop too small, or why some places call ham Canadian bacon – you know, real important stuff.
Their show coined some classic Canadian phrases both with the show, the album, “The Great White North” and the movie, “Strange Brew” that followed. Even Geddy Lee of Rush got in on the fun with the single, “Take Off“.
How “EH” is Used
There’s a lot of different ways we use “Eh”, depending on the context and placement in a sentence. Sometimes you can use “wasn’t it?”, “huh?” or “right?” kind of the same way we use “eh” to get the same meaning, as follows:
- To ask a question or look for confirmation: That was a great movie, eh? .. or .. That was a great movie, wasn’t it?
We use it to state an opinion: This chocolate is amazing, eh? (I’m not asking you, I’m telling…😊)
It’s used to show we’re surprised or excited: Don’t scare me like that, eh?!
And to make a request or command: Can you please turn that down, eh?
We use it to make accusations: I see you ate the last piece, eh?
In storytelling we throw it in all over the place to keep the reader engaged: “The weather’s finally nice again eh, so we went for a ride on the bike, eh? then when we left the house we went north instead of south and found this cool spot in the mountains eh …“.
I hope you had a little fun learning about “eh” and how “The Great Escape, Eh?” came to be. I’m looking forward to sharing a lot more fun stuff along the way, and I’d be so happy if you’d join along!
Check out our friends Bob and Doug McKenzie as they show us around the Great White North. Beauty, eh?
“Take off, eh?! You Hoser…”
– Bob and Doug McKenzie