DCHP-1 Online

arpent [< F] Hist.

• 1 n. a French linear measure equal to approximately 190 feet, used in areas of predominantly French-Canadian settlement.

  • This linear use seems to have been fairly common during the early nineteenth century.

  • c1749  (1889)  . . . the farm houses are never more than five arpents apart, and sometimes but three. . . .
  • 1841  . . . he was discovered near a fence, frozen to death; his horse was found . . . about 30 arpents from him, well and eating hay. . . .
  • 1936  The village was in the form of a square of forty arpents' side (about 1 1/2 miles).

• 2 n. a French land measure equal to about an acre.

  • 1703  (1905)  An arpent is a spot of ground containing 100 perches square each of which is eighteen foot long.
  • 1820  To Sell or Lease, and possession given in April next, of about one Hundred Arpents, well fenced, with all good new buildings thereon.
  • 1936  This pitifully slow development is also reflected in the meagre amount of land which was cleared and cultivated, there being in 1628 not more, probably, than twenty-five arpents.