arpent
Americannoun
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arpents
plural
noun
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a former French unit of length equal to 190 feet (approximately 58 metres)
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an old French unit of land area equal to about one acre: still used in Quebec and Louisiana
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of arpent
1570–80; < Middle French < Latin arepennis half-acre < Gaulish; akin to MIr airchenn unit of area
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An arpent des eaux et forets, or legal acre of France, of which 1.
From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 1 by Thomasina Ross
An arpent rents at from twenty to sixty livres.
From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph
An arpent of land was 180 French feet square.
From The Winning of the West, Volume 1 From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 by Theodore Roosevelt
The superficial arpent, or arpent of area, contained about five-sixths of an acre.
From The Seigneurs of Old Canada : A Chronicle of New World Feudalism by William Bennett Munro
I learned in the course of my walk that she was the daughter of a small farmer: the farm was small indeed, being about half an arpent, or acre.
From Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 by Lt-Col. Pinkney
The 1681 census discloses that Jean and Marguerite owned two guns, their 30 arpents, eight cattle, and had four children at home.
From Time Magazine Archive
Stengel's critique neatly encapsulates a view that has remained unchanged since Voltaire dismissed North America as "a few arpents of snow."
From Time Magazine Archive
Monsieur de Laye has a seignory of about fifteen thousand arpents, in pasture, corn, vines, and wood.
From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph
In the year 1646, the company of New France, under M. de Montmagny, conceded this land, a lot of ground, with a frontage of three arpents, to Jean Bouvart dit Lafortune.
From Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present by Sir J. M. (James MacPherson) Le Moine
In our known hemisphere there are about fifty thousand million arpents to cultivate, some passable, some sterile.
From Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire
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