Dogan Update
I had the opportunity, last weekend, of asking my elderly polish-canadian catholic relatives if they were 'dogans' and the response was universal. 'Dogan' is a pejorative term for Irish Catholics, not Catholics in general. Polacks have their own 'nicknames', it seems.
Another linguistic conundrum solved!
Showing posts with label dogans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogans. Show all posts
2007/11/12
2007/10/26
Dogan? Dougan? Doghan?
Who knows how to spell this word, which I have never seen on paper, only heard spoken. And I have no idea where I picked it up. Childhood acquaintances? My dad or grandfather (northern Ontario Presbyterians)?
I think it means "Catholic", but it might mean "Irish Catholic".
I have tried it out in my multicultural corporate work environment and a couple of the small-town Ontario types looked up sharply, but that was it.
I asked them about it later (one a 25 year old girl, the other a grizzled 50-year old ex-paratrooper) and while neither could explain how they knew this 'epithet', they both professed to some surprise when this word from Ontario's cold, intolerant Orange past popped up in the middle of a meeting. (Or at least that was how I interpreted what they were saying.)
It is little social experiments like this that make corporate life bearable. The problem is I still can't find anything on the origins/usage of the word 'dogan'.
Enquiring minds need to know!
UPDATE
It occurs to me that this sort of thing has happened to me before, when, as a dinner guest, I referred to the pointy fat-and-gristle part at the rear-end of the roast chicken as "the Pope's Nose".
Doesn't everyone call it that?
Who knows how to spell this word, which I have never seen on paper, only heard spoken. And I have no idea where I picked it up. Childhood acquaintances? My dad or grandfather (northern Ontario Presbyterians)?
I think it means "Catholic", but it might mean "Irish Catholic".
I have tried it out in my multicultural corporate work environment and a couple of the small-town Ontario types looked up sharply, but that was it.
I asked them about it later (one a 25 year old girl, the other a grizzled 50-year old ex-paratrooper) and while neither could explain how they knew this 'epithet', they both professed to some surprise when this word from Ontario's cold, intolerant Orange past popped up in the middle of a meeting. (Or at least that was how I interpreted what they were saying.)
It is little social experiments like this that make corporate life bearable. The problem is I still can't find anything on the origins/usage of the word 'dogan'.
Enquiring minds need to know!
UPDATE
It occurs to me that this sort of thing has happened to me before, when, as a dinner guest, I referred to the pointy fat-and-gristle part at the rear-end of the roast chicken as "the Pope's Nose".
Doesn't everyone call it that?
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