sqwabb

I currently sleep blissfully well in a parkade. I'm sure people in many parts of the world will understand the term, but parkade is recognized the world-over as a Canadianism, a uniquely Canadian term, for a parking garage, especially in Western Canada. (*). At some earlier point of my life I was given to believe the word, a portmanteau, or blend, of parking and arcade, was coined by The Hudson's Bay Company to refer to covered parking garages connected with the HBC department stores. It seems to have been the out-of-print Gage Canadian Dictionary which strongly suggested this. (*) These days it is said to have likely originated with either the HBC or Woodwards (*), a now defunct family-owned department store chain on the West Coast of Canada.