habitant
English edit
Etymology edit
From Old French habitant.
Noun edit
habitant (plural habitants)
- (Canada) a member of habitation colony at Stadacona founded by Samuel de Champlain, where Quebec City now lies
- (archaic) Inhabitant, dweller.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 288–289:
- The last dark branches which intercepted his view gave way, and he saw a heap of blackened ruins. Scarcely aware of his own actions, he sprang from his horse. A single glance convinced him it could harbour no human habitant.
- 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:
- Myriads of habitants are ever sleeping,
Or dead, or fled from nameless pestilence!
Catalan edit
Noun edit
habitant m (plural habitants)
Verb edit
habitant
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Participle edit
habitant
Noun edit
habitant m (plural habitants, feminine habitante)
- an inhabitant of some place
- (Quebec, derogatory) someone who has a poor understanding of social conventions, making them look backward
- (Quebec, dated or derogatory) anybody from a rural or recently colonized area
- (Canada, historical) a member of the habitation colony at Stadacona founded by Samuel de Champlain, where Quebec City now lies
- (Quebec, colloquial) Montreal Canadiens hockey club or supporter of Montreal Canadiens hockey club
- (Louisiana) a farmer
Usage notes edit
- Although the term originates as legitimate to describe early French colonists and French Canadian farmers, it has now taken a strong pejorative aspect in Quebec French, and using it without an explicit location would be perceived as pejorative.
Synonyms edit
- (farmer): agriculteur m; (dated) fermier
Further reading edit
- “habitant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin edit
Verb edit
habitant
Middle French edit
Noun edit
habitant m (plural habitans)
Descendants edit
- French: habitant