Quebecers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Residents or natives of the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, often referred to as the people who live there
2. Inhabitants of Quebec, the largest province in eastern Canada, whose culture and language are rooted in French heritage
3. Individuals born in or living within the Canadian province of Quebec, especially those of French-Canadian background

Etymology: "Quebecers" is simply the plural of "Quebecer," a word formed by adding the English suffix "-er" to "Quebec." The place name itself comes from the Algonquin "kepek," meaning "where the river narrows," a reference to the strait at the foot of the St. Lawrence River where the city of Quebec now stands. French explorers and settlers adopted the name as "Québec," and English speakers later adopted it too. The suffix does the same job as in "New Yorker" or "Londoner": it turns a place name into a word for a person associated with that place. Its distant ancestry runs through Latin "-arius," which English took in through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er," the same route that produced many occupational words like "baker" and "farmer."

Synonyms: Québécois, Québécoise