Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various French units of land measurement, especially one used in parts of Canada and the southern United States and equal to about 0.4 hectare (0.85 acre).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old French measure for land.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Formerly, a measure of land in France, varying in different parts of the country. The arpent of Paris was 4,088 sq. yards, or nearly five sixths of an English acre. The woodland arpent was about 1 acre, 1 rood, 1 perch, English.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A unit of length, having various official measures
  • noun A unit of area, having various official measures

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a former French unit of area; equal approximately to an acre

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Latin arepennis, half acre; see per in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • The arpent is the old French measure that is approximately one acre in size.

    The Glass Rainbow James Lee Burke 2010

  • The arpent is the old French measure that is approximately one acre in size.

    The Glass Rainbow James Lee Burke 2010

  • The arpent is the old French measure that is approximately one acre in size.

    The Glass Rainbow James Lee Burke 2010

  • The arpent is the old French measure that is approximately one acre in size.

    The Glass Rainbow James Lee Burke 2010

  • The portage was said to be only fifty acres long (the arpent is the popular measure of distance here), but it passed over a ridge of newly burned land, and was so entangled with ruined woods and desolate of birds and flowers that it seemed to us at least five miles.

    Little Rivers; a book of essays in profitable idleness Henry Van Dyke 1892

  • The arpent was the standard unit of area in the Creole parishes of Louisiana, the acre in the parishes of Anglo-American settlement.] [Footnote 34: Calvin D. Wilson, "Black Masters," in the _North American

    American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime Ulrich Bonnell Phillips 1905

  • He could keep his fish, but had to fell and cut four arpents of trees an arpent is 0.85 percent of an acre over the next year and live on the place as well.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • He could keep his fish, but had to fell and cut four arpents of trees an arpent is 0.85 percent of an acre over the next year and live on the place as well.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • He could keep his fish, but had to fell and cut four arpents of trees an arpent is 0.85 percent of an acre over the next year and live on the place as well.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • He could keep his fish, but had to fell and cut four arpents of trees an arpent is 0.85 percent of an acre over the next year and live on the place as well.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

Comments

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  • Any of various French units of land measurement, especially one used in parts of Canada and the southern United States and equal to about 0.4 hectare (0.85 acre).

    July 10, 2008