I was talking with a friend this evening, and she told me that she was always thought that the word Newfie was a derogatory term, loosely meaning “stupid”. Yet, many people from Newfoundland call themselves Newfie and are proud to do so. I am one of those.
Here’s a funny story.
Several years ago, I was one of several Newfies working in Fredericton on a large government project. We all proudly declared ourselves Newfies. One day, a lady from Quebec who worked with us mustered enough courage to question me as to why I called myself a Newfie. She was even more confused when I said I was proud of it. I further explained to her that is simply means I’m from Newfoundland. Then the light bulb turned on. She had never associated the two. She told me that growing up, her mother always used the term to mean “stupid”. If she stubbed her toe or bumped her head on something, her mother would say “you are such a newfie!”.
People are such Newfies!
Nelly
October 13, 2005 at 10:03 pm
You know what? Even though I did associate the term “Newfie” with NFLD, that’s exactly what I understood people to mean when they referred to a “Newfie”. That’s why, personally, I don’t like to use it.
Steve
March 27, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I used to run this blog at blogger.com When I switched to WordPress with my own domain name I ported the old posts over. This was one of them. Today, I got a comment posted against this post at the old site. Here it is:
Hi there. It’s so funny that you would post this because I too am a Newfie and proud to call myself one and I have experienced something like this. Me and my friends were sitting with two people (who were siblings) that we just met that came from Quebec. My friends, who is half-newfie, called me a Newfie in front of them. The guy looks at her and says “Why would you call her that?” My friend gladly replied “Oh because she is a newfie. She comes from Newfoundland and that is what Newfoundlanders go by.” The guy, who looked a little shocked at that added “Oh. Well where we come from, usually the term Newfie means “stupid”. It strucked me hard at first but after I just laughed at it and I still do. He felt kind of bad for saying it but I told him no harm done. He was nice and didn’t mean anything by it but it was still funny how people assume this term means “stupid”.
Rebecca | 03.27.08 – 2:57 am