The use of the term 'musher', in English and in French to designate a dog sled driver, has a sociohistorical explanation. The English word comes from the order ‘Marche !’ given to the sled dogs by the Francophones of Northern Canada in the 18th century. The English-speaking Canadians are said to have subsequently deformed it into ‘mush’, whose variant ‘musher’ has become widespread.