_cat spruce_

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1972
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/15909

cat spruce Some Newfoundland folk-names differ widely from terms used in the other nine Provinces. _cat spruce_, used in all the Atlantic Provinces and relatively recently in British Columbia, is referred to elsewhere under its rare elliptical form. _Var_, _vir_ and _fir_, variants of the same word and all used in one or another dialect area in Britain, are used in areas of Newfound- land for balsam-fir and spruce lumber, sometimes for the trees themselves; though the balsam fir (known from Nova Scotia to British Columbia simply as _balsam_ or, exceptionally, _fir_--its lumber is mixed with and sold as "spruce") is known as _ silver nine_, _silver spruce_ and _silver fir_ in areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is also called _snotty var_, though this term is locally applied to any evergreen tree when particulary productive of gum. The larch --when not so called -- is termed a _juniper_, only rarely a _tamarack_ as in central and western Canada, or a _hack(a)matack_ as in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia [inc], in 1942. I heard _tall juniper_, used to distinguish larch from the [inc] _juniper_, a dwarf evergreen common in the area. W. J. KIRWIN DEC 1972 JH DEC 1972 Not used Not used Withdrawn Checked by Jordyn Hughes on Wed 13 Jul 2016