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Meaning of the phrase to have a canary:
Chiefly Irish English, the colloquial phrase to have a canary means: to lose one’s composure, to be extremely upset.
This phrase is also used in British English (cf., for example, quotation 1 below) and in Canadian English—the following, for example, is from We’re Friends, Aren’t We? (Richmond Hill (Ontario): Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1986), by the Nova-Scotian author Sylvia Gunnery [May 26, page 68]:
“What happened with Duncan? Boy, I’d hate to have his head today.”
“He’s grounded until he can collect his old age pension. Aunt Martha just about had a canary. She kept saying, ‘If your father were alive’—like that was going to make Duncan collapse with guilt.”
Origin of the phrase to have a canary:
Although this phrase is similar to the earlier synonymous phrases to have kittens and to have a cow, the most plausible explanation is that to have a canary is a humorous play on to have a coronary, i.e., to have a heart attack (here, the noun coronary designates an obstruction within a coronary artery). This explanation seems to be supported by the use of to have a canary fit in quotation 1 below.
In any case, the phrase to have a canary is unlikely to be related to the much earlier literary malapropism of canary for quandary used by Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, a comedy by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Early occurrences of the phrase to have a canary:
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to have a canary that I have found:
1-: From Taking stock in S.W. Middlesex, by L. Dennis, published in the Middlesex Chronicle (Hounslow & Brentford, London, England) of Friday 10th April 1970 [page 13, column 5]:
Sarah Trimmer 1, famous schoolmistress of Brentford was an opponent of Lancaster 2. […]
She’d have had a canary fit if she could have looked into the future and seen Lancaster’s Nonconformist British and Foreign School Society’s College come to Isleworth, 1890.
1 Sarah Trimmer (née Kirby – 1741-1810) was a British educational reformer.
2 Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838) was a British Quaker and educational reformer.
2-: From Secret work, a short story by 11-year-old Phyllis Dolan, published in the Irish Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Saturday 25th March 1972 [page 12, column 1]:
I got five francs. Phew! That was millions of money I thought. I soon had bad news: Blooko is in prison. I nearly had a canary in the tram-car. Poor old Blooko was in some mischief? Could I guess it?
I paid two francs to free old Blooko. We both travelled the country together. The fresh air did us a whale of good.
3-: From My life as a top DJ, by the Irish radio and television presenter Terry Wogan (1938-2016), published in the Sunday Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Sunday 16th December 1973 [page 16, column 4]:
—Context: In 1966, Terry Wogan, who was under contract to RTÉ (Radio Telefis Éireann, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster), did a few shows for BBC Radio 1, which released a publicity photograph of him; Kevin McCourt (1915-2000) was the then Director-General of RTÉ:
The photograph appeared in the Dublin evening papers and Kevin McCourt, then Director General, had had a canary when he saw it! Even though I explained the situation he still wasn’t too pleased with me.
4-: From the column That Beats Banagher, by Mick Feeney, published in the Evening Herald (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Tuesday 31st May 1977 [page 10, column 8]:
—Context: The narrator, a hospital patient, has been hearing a conversation between members of the staff:
“I started shiverin’ and the sweat ram [sic] outa me like water. The sister thought I was havin’ a seizure until I up and told her what had happened.
“She nearly had a blue canary laughin’, for it wasn’t me they were discussin’ at all, but some poor oul joxer that croacked it during the night.”
5-: From the column That Beats Banagher, by Mick Feeney, published in the Evening Herald (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Tuesday 17th April 1979 [page 8, column 3]:
I believe that some of the people delivering the census have come in for severe reprimanding when, after knocking on doors and innocently asking petite Mona Lisas if they could see the “Man of the House”.
A particular case I heard of was that a male “census deliverer” who rang the bell of a mahogany door, Georgian-fronted house (if poor old George could only rise from under his green-grassed blanket, or stone-bedspead [sic], and see what was passing for architecture styled in his name he’d have a blue canary) and was greeted by a fairly tall, broadshouldered, Board-Bainne breasted, bottle-tanned individual, whose black-rooted blonde hair was cut in a semi-Cromwell, semi-Beatle (and I don’t mean the once-famous pop group) style.
6-: From a review of the BBC-2 chat-show hosted by the British television presenter Russell Harty (1934-1988)—review by Keith Baker, published in the Belfast Telegraph (Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) of Saturday 19th December 1981 [page 8, column 7]:
Harty’s show, live and eccentric as it is, is still my favourite chat programme. Harty remains unfazed at times when Parkinson 3 would be having a canary, or perhaps an emu.
3 The reference is to the British chat-show host Michael Parkinson (1935-2023).
POSTSCRIPT:
I have noticed the use of the phrase a canary’s chance, meaning no chance at all, in the following from an interview of the Irish hockey-player John A. Douglas—interview by David Faiers, published in the Sunday Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Sunday 19th February 1978 [page 27, column 2]:
“Ian Steepe asked me to rejoin the national squad and although I didn’t think I had a canary’s chance of making the party for Argentina I determined to give it a real go and decided to train like hell.”
The phrase a canary’s chance may allude both to the phrase a snowball’s chance (in hell), meaning no chance at all, and to the phrase a canary in the coal mine, designating an early indicator of the safety, status or outcome of a situation.
