DCHP-1 Online

aboiteau -x or -s. abatteau, aboideau [< Cdn F] Maritimes

• • The etymology of aboiteau has not been satisfactorily explained. The following quotations are offered as examples of suggested origins:

  • 1898  I have always understood that the word "aboideau" came from the French words "aboi," "d'eau"; "aboi"-- to keep at bay, "d'eau"--the water. It is a poetical expression taken from hunting--the moose keeping the dogs at bay. . . .
  • 1898  Possibly, [aboideau] . . . was "une boîte d'eau," but more probably "à la boîte d'eau," or "à boîte d'eau"--at the water-box . . . .
  • 1898  I came to the conclusion that [aboideau] is a condensation of . . . "l'abée d'eau." Abée is a well-established old French word, whose meaning is a mill-dam, or, simply, a dam.

• 1 n. a dike (def. 1) or dam equipped with a gate which functions as a valve releasing flood water from behind but preventing sea water from entering at high tide.

  See also: bito  dike (def. 1)  marsh dike  

  • 1708  (1898)  [On n'arrête pas le cours de la Mer aisément; cependant les Acadiens en viennent à bout par de puissantes Digues qu'ils appelent des Aboteaux. . . .]
  • 1825  Before half an hour the violence of the water washed away with a fearful rapidity the complete side of the abatteau and left the other a shattered and disfigured monument to their enterprise.
  • 1957  Beyond Avonport Station, we cross an aboiteau and reach the sands at Oak Bluffs.

• 2 n. the sluice-gate, or valve, arrangement in the dike.

  • 1899  The dyke and aboideau served the purpose of shutting out the tide from about 600 acres of marsh.
  • 1960  The English apparently learned from the Acadians the special arts of building dikes and aboiteaux.