CHIMO!

This is an Ookpik.

Chimo!

A few weeks ago I came across Cheers for Canada! - a plea for a truly unique Canadian word for "cheers!" As a self-proclaimed and perhaps sometimes apparent sommelier, I immediately and excitedly submitted the word "CHIMO".

I first stumbled upon "chimo" through Douglas Coupland's Souvenir of Canada. A super nostalgic, feel-good to be Canadian movie on all things that make us humble Canadians.

So what makes the Inuktittuk word "chimo" the perfect Canadian cheers? For one, "chimo" has history. For a period of about three months "...in the 1970s with the Olympics and Expo, draft-dodgers, Trudeau, bilingual cereal boxes and kicking Soviet hockey ass, Canada-mania reached new, dizzying heights. We were hot hot hot, and we needed a word that was cool. A Canadian word. And that word was "chimo."

- Tokyo Tint

"Chimo!" is fun to say (it's damn catchy and forces your facial muscles into a smile) and has a myriad of uses. Besides being used for cheers-ing, it is a Tundra greeting and can be easily integrated into everyday conversation (par example: "Man, that girl is so chimo, I'd like to score her digits.").

Vote for the new Cheers for Canada soon!

Chimo!