arpent

noun

ar·​pent är-ˈpäⁿ 

plural arpents är-ˈpäⁿ(z) 

1

: any of various old French units of land area

especially : one used in French sections of Canada and the U.S. equal to about 0.85 acre (0.34 hectare)

2

: a unit of length equal to one side of a square arpent

Examples of arpent in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On the right bank of the Mississippi River, measuring 7/16 of one arpent, more or less, bounded on the upper line by the property of Valcour Pierre, on the lower line by that of Widow Ludger Perret, and (property No. — Nola.com Digital Operations, NOLA.com, 12 Jan. 2018

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French, going back to Old French, going back to Latin arepennis "measure of land area (half of a Roman jūgerum)," borrowed from a Gaulish word going back to Celtic *φare-k^wenno- "end, end point" (whence also Welsh arbenn- in arbennig "chief, principal," Old Irish airchinn "narrow side of a rectangle, head, end, measure of land"), from φare- "in front of" (going back to Indo-European *pr̥H-i- "in front of, for") + k^wenno- "head" (whence Old Welsh penn "head," Old Irish cenn), of uncertain origin — more at for entry 1

Note: Latin arepennis is linked to the Gauls by the Roman agricultural writer Columella ("Galli … semiiugerum quoque arepennem appellant," De re rustica 5.1 - "The Gauls also call the half-jūgerum arepennis."). Presumably the Celtic word originally denoted the end of a furrow at the field margin where the plowman reversed direction; the sense was then extended to the entire side of a field, and then to a set measure of land. The origin of the final consonant in arpent is uncertain. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, second edition, suggests that -nd- clusters in continental Celtic were reduced to -nn-, as in British Celtic and Irish, and that the final of arpent represents a hypercorrection.

First Known Use

1580, in the meaning defined at sense 1