Kétaine

Kétaine or quétaine is a Québécisme initially designating a badly equipped person and then a style, a person or a manner of living obsolete or bad taste. Its equivalent French would be thus old-fashioned, but one can also use Beauf or Kitsch.

Origins

It is probably in the area of Saint-Hyacinthe, during the years 1940, that the word “kétaine” takes its origin. At that time, it is applied to the residents of the Marché to hays, nickname given to the poor and adjacent district at the market with hays of the city.

Here three stories clash:

most widespread suggests that the word is a derivative of family name Keaton or McKeaton, coming from a family of Irish origin living in this district and who would have had vestimentary tastes and a public behavior debatable.
the other history is that of Andrée Champagne, Comédienne, which affirms that the word would have been a family expression deriving from “quêteux” and aiming at the beggars of this district. She affirms that it was current, at her, to say “They are the quétaines market with hays” while speaking about the beggars carrying of obsolete clothing and badly agencés.
Elle also affirms that, during a discussion with Dominique Michel and Denise Filiatrault, she would have launched to the sight of a badly equipped person who she was “kétaine”. The two interlocutresses asked him to explain and she would have said: “That does not go together. It does not have pace. ” In the following weeks, at the time of daily of the two actresses, the word was used in one of their sketches.
According to the written memories (volume first, page 44) of the former mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe between 1917 and 1930, Télesphore-Damien Bouchard, Quétenne comes from the nickname of one of the most notorious families of the bottom of the city, Martin known as Quétenne.

Certain Inhabitants of Quebec in sight cultivate an image quétaine, for example Mado Lamotte, which often thus describes itself and its customers.

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