1. A corruption of the French Acadian "canadien".
2. A shortening of the term "canadien-français".
3. A derivative of the Scottish Gaelic word "ceannadach".
4. An Indigenous word meaning "people of the village" or "man".
The most widely accepted theory is that "Canuck" is a shortened form of "canadien-français", which was used to refer to French Canadians in the 18th and 19th centuries. The term was originally used in a derogatory sense but eventually became a more accepted nickname for Canadians in general.