Canadian tuxedo
- noun
- /kəˈneɪdiən tʌkˈsiːdoʊ/
- Informal
:
tuxedo canadiense
- He loves his Canadian tuxedo, claiming denim on denim never goes out of style.
Examples
-
Where'd you get the Canadian tuxedo?
-
She decided to wear a Canadian tuxedo to the music festival for a trendy, casual look.
-
The group showed up in matching Canadian tuxedos for the themed party.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Canadian + tuxedo
The phrase is a humorous, culture-specific label for wearing denim jacket with jeans and does not compose transparently from 'Canadian' (from Canada) + 'tuxedo' (a formal evening suit). Because the overall meaning (a denim outfit) is ironic and not predictable from the literal constituents, a B1 learner who knows the words would unlikely infer the intended sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Canadian tuxedo comes from a funny story: in the 1950s a singer was turned away from a fancy hotel in Canada for wearing denim, so a clothing company made him a denim 'tuxedo' as a joke. That picture—a jacket and pants both in denim—explains why Canadian tuxedo now means wearing a denim jacket with denim jeans.
