arpent

American  

[ahr-puhnt, ar-pahn] / ˈɑr pənt, arˈpɑ̃ /

noun

• arpents
  plural

1. an old French unit of area equal to about one acre (0.4 hectare). It is still used in the province of Quebec and in parts of Louisiana.

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arpent British  

/ arpɑ̃, ˈɑːpənt /

noun

1. a former French unit of length equal to 190 feet (approximately 58 metres)

2. an old French unit of land area equal to about one acre: still used in Quebec and Louisiana

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• arpents
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of arpent

1570–80; < Middle French < Latin arepennis half-acre < Gaulish; akin to MIr airchenn unit of area

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

arpent arpents

Each grant varied from sixteen arpents—an arpent being about five-sixths of an English acre—by fifty, to ten leagues by twelve.

From Lord Elgin by Sir John George Bourinot

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

I'm feel all right for my monee,   For sure mon Choual he's took firs' place, W'en 'bout arpent from home, sapré,   Somet'ing she's happen, I'm los' de race.

From The Habitant and Other French-Canadian Poems by William Henry Drummond

It is estimated that sales are made once in eighty years; these rights bear on 1,356 arpents which are worth, the best, 192 livres per arpent the second best, 110 livres, the poorest, 75 livres.

From The Ancient Regime by John Durand

We're goin' to have half an arpent square of flowers, an' she'll love to work among 'em.

From Back to God's Country and Other Stories by James Oliver Curwood

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

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

The sons claim and receive their shares of the arpents of land when those boys are grown and married.

From The Landloper by Holman Day

The affection of this remnant of her children, turned adrift in their few arpents of snow, has never died towards the land so changed from the time of our forefathers.

From The Young Seigneur Or, Nation-Making by W. D. (William Douw) Lighthall

In like manner, the acres are taken in arpents.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. Simmonds

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