Looking for half-remembered word from Toronto schoolyard

May 9, 2008 6:56 PM

Looking for a lost word (Torontonian/Canadian dialect): There is a word that my husband and I both remember from our childhood, but cannot spell, and we can't find anyone else who knows this word. It sounds like "coal-liss" or "coal-lass", and it was used in Etobicoke, Ontario in the 1980s to mean the asphalt part of a schoolyard. Did we just collectively dream this word? Or did (does) it exist, and how is it spelled, and where is it used?

We have already done a small poll at a party, with no luck - not even the other Canadian there (from Edmonton) had heard of it, and none of the Americans (several of whom said their word for the same thing was "blacktop").

posted by jb to writing & language (12 comments total)

Coal ash, seems to be the thing.
posted by beagle at 7:12 PM on May 9

I was born in '80 and raised in Kitchener, but I have no recollection of an alternate term for asphalt aside from "blacktop". Strange that you would have been exposed to such a confined regionalism.
posted by chudmonkey at 7:12 PM on May 9

I went to primary school in West Toronto (Jane and Bloor) throughout the 80s and I've never heard this word.

We did play a fun little game called red-ass on the asphalt, though.
posted by booner at 7:13 PM on May 9

omg. redass. OMG.

With the love of all things retro these days, one wonders if a redass league could be made to happen..
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:33 PM on May 9

The coal ash link seems plausible as a possible origin of the term, but it was not pronounced that way at all.

As for the limited range of the word - well, my husband and I did go to the same middle school, but two different primary schools in Etobicoke. Jane and Bloor is nearby, but it was a different school system then.
posted by jb at 7:56 PM on May 9

I was in junior kindergarten for part of 1989 in Etobicoke, and spent the rest of elementary school in neighboring Peel region, and never heard that term. Maybe it just wasn't a 90's thing? However, I can remember redass (and four square, omg) being popular as late as the mid-90's.
posted by thisjax at 7:59 PM on May 9

We called it Coal Tar or Coalo Tar.
posted by markovich at 10:06 PM on May 9

The word "tarmac" is sometimes used to refer to asphalt - not exactly what you remember, but sometimes memories mutate with time.
posted by mmoncur at 10:17 PM on May 9

Yes, I definitely remember this from two primary schools, and possibly middle school, in Etobicoke in the 90s. As I recall, nobody really knew where the word came from, or why the teachers/principals used it. It was quite the topic of discussion at the time. But I'm pretty sure I haven't heard the word used since then.

Sorry I can't give you any definite answers (I definitely don't know how to spell it), other than confirming that no, you're not making it up.
posted by redshift at 10:35 PM on May 9

Caliche (kal-eesh'), maybe?
posted by Acacia at 4:46 AM on May 10

jb, is it possible that the origin of your term was "coal ash", but the pronunciation shifted locally? After all, we're talking about Etobicoke, where the k is silent.
posted by maudlin at 4:53 PM on May 10

jb, is it possible that the origin of your term was "coal ash", but the pronunciation shifted locally? After all, we're talking about Etobicoke, where the k is silent.
posted by maudlin at 7:53 PM on May 10 [mark as best answer] [+] [!]

I have no idea - it was never said with an "sh" at the end, and the stress was definitely on the first syllable, which makes it sound less like "coal-ash", more like "COAL-ess". Coal ash seems to be something which is used in making asphalt or concrete, not the concrete itself - and this is a word that only applied to schoolyard concrete.

redshift - you're the only other person who seems to have heard of this word (and I'm so glad it wasn't something I imagined) - what do you think?

My husband and I are thinking that we might just have to write to a teacher from Etobicoke - maybe it was something from the Board down.
posted by jb at 7:18 AM on May 12