arpent

From French arpent, from Late Latin arepennis (“surface of a field”), from Gaulish *are-penno- (“end, extremity of a field”) (see Proto-Celtic *Kʷennowindos).

arpent (plural arpents)

1. A pre-metric French unit of length, having various official measures (from 58 to 72 metres).
2. A pre-metric French unit of area, having various official measures (from 3419 to 5107 square metres).
   • 1899, James Curtis Ballagh, “Southern Economic History: Tariff and Public Lands”, in Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1898‎^[1], U.S. Government Printing Office, page 257:

     In Louisiana and Missouri there were two chief forms of grants—urban and rural. These urban grants consisted of inlots, outlots, and common lands, very much like the Pennsylvania plan, but on a broader basis. The earliest settlers, for social reasons and protection, seemed to favor settling together. The rural grants varied from several hundred to thousands of acres, the league square, consisting of 7,056 arpents, not being unusual.

• -pteran, Panter, Parten, enrapt, entrap, panter, parent, trepan

Inherited from Late Latin arepennis (“surface of a field”), from Gaulish *are-penno- (“end, extremity of a field”).

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.pɑ̃/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃
• Homophone: arpents

arpent m (plural arpents)

1. arpent
   • 1837 Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter I:

     Sa curiosité et son extravagance arrivèrent à ce point qu’il vendit plusieurs arpents de bonnes terres à labourer pour acheter des livres de chevalerie à lire.

     His curiosity and his extravagance came to the point that he sold several arpents of good working land to buy books of chivalry to read.

• “arpent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• parent, râpent