5 - 1967 – Excitement and Hype

Summary

This chapter places the identity-affirming events in and around Canada's centennial year in 1967 front and centre, with special emphasis on the linguistic dimension. A brief overview of historical dictionary projects in five countries, their notorious cost overruns and decade-long delays is offered to put into perspective the achievement of the Big Six and their historical Dictionary of Canadianisms. Canadianisms are linguistically defined and illustrated in this chapter, using the second edition's six-tiered typology, which leads into a knowledge-theoretical discussion of how one can detect words, meanings, and uses that are "distinctly characteristic" of Canadian English. The dictionary series, which was finally completed in 1967 with the third and fourth volumes, was received with much praise. Historical sales data of the Dictionary of Canadianisms helps reconstruct how the Canadian flagship dictionary, which was praised so much in 1967, could have been forgotten within a decade.