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habitant
[< Cdn F]
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1n.
a farmer in French Canada, originally a person holding land from a seigneur (def. 1).
Quotations
1791
The Canadians are particularly fond of dancing, from the seigneur to the habitant. . . .
1886
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.
2n.
any French Canadian, especially one from rural Quebec.
Quotations
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?
3n.
the dialect or patois spoken by rustic or backwoods French Canadians.
See: habitant French
Quotations
<i>c</i>1902
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. . . .
4n. — Local
on the southern coast of Labrador, a French-speaking fisherman.
Quotations
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.