Canada point n. a place away from a city’s center where newspapers are distributed to newsboys and news agents. Editorial Note: Now historical. This term appears to have been used only in Boston and New York City. Etymological Note: Probably by comparison of the remote locations of such centers of distribution to the vast expanses of Canada, although it is possibly influenced by the common use of crosstown streets in New York City as landmarks or reference points, which is similar to the the use of geographic latitudes, or parallels, to refer to places and distances in Canada. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but how accurate is the script when it comes to the vocabulary of the early 20th century? It may be jarring to hear the word swag, but it was already at...
Carl in Sebastopol, California, was reminded of his childhood on New York’s Lower East Side while ready Harry Golden’s book For 2 Cents Plain (Amazon), the title referring to how customers ordered a plain glass of seltzer. For a little...