A Canadian English term, primarily historical, for a voyageur -- one of the French-Canadian fur-trade paddlers who navigated the inland waterways of North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. More broadly it can mean any person who travels or works by canoe. The historical voyageur sense carries significant cultural resonance in the Canadian national narrative. The word honors the essential labor of water-route navigation.
The museum exhibit honored the canoemanship of the voyageurs who crossed the continent long before roads existed.
No comments yet — say something.
A Canadian term for someone who paddles a canoe, or historically, a voyageur — the fur trade paddlers who navigated Canada's vast waterway networks in the 17th to 19th centuries. In modern usage it simply means a canoeist, but the historical sense carries real weight in Canadian identity. The voyageurs were tough, enduring figures who shaped the country's geography and economy, and calling someone a canoeman links to that tradition.
He'd been a canoeman since childhood, spending every summer working the lakes up north.
No comments yet — say something.
(chiefly, Canada, historical) A voyageur.
No comments yet — say something.
(chiefly, Canada) A canoeist.
No comments yet — say something.
Add your own interpretation of "canoeman".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.