DCHP-1 Online

habitant [< Cdn F]

• 1 n. a farmer in French Canada, originally a person holding land from a seigneur (def. 1).

  See also: seigneur (def. 1)  

  • 1791  The Canadians are particularly fond of dancing, from the seigneur to the habitant. . . .
  • 1886  (1887)  The habitant or censitaire held his property by the tenure of a censive, on condition of making annual payments in money or produce known as cens et rente, which was ridiculously small in the early times of the colony.
  • 1931  The habitants, on the other hand, being a stubborn people, refused to take any oath of allegiance unless it contained a special clause promising them that they would not have to fight for the British king.
  • 1938  And so they continued to swagger round the dram shops . . . while despising the humble habitants from whose ranks they had sprung. . . .
  • 1963  From almost its earliest beginnings, the colony [New France] was under the joint tutelage of church and state, with each reinforcing the other in dealings with the Habitants.

• 2 n. any French Canadian, especially one from rural Quebec.

  • 1789  When the experiment shall have been fairly made, my Brother Habitants will be so convinced of the expediency of the regulation, that they will universally give it their support.
  • 1891  "La Presse," of Quebec, intimates that the habitants of that Province fail because they do not run their households economically.
  • 1916  The habitant prefers to be let alone. In defence of Quebec he would fight like a wild cat.
  • 1963  Old-time suppers, square dances, habitant sports will be interspersed with ice skating contests. . . .
  • 1966  As the old habitant joke had it, it's okay to t'row out de hank [anchor], but suppose there's no rope on the hank?

• 3 n. the dialect or patois spoken by rustic or backwoods French Canadians.

  See also: habitant French  

  • c1902  Then the grass strands would tremble with excitement and the little French hunter's body would quiver and he would begin pouring forth a jumble, half habitant half Indian with a mixture of all the oaths from both languages, pointing and pointing at his hidden face and bidding you look at what the bear had done to him. . . .

• 4 n. Local on the southern coast of Labrador, a French-speaking fisherman.

  • 1947  On the southern coast a distinction is also made between liveyeres, English-speaking, semi-settled fishermen[,] and habitants, semi-settled fishermen who speak French.