A historical region in northeastern North America, primarily in present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, colonized by the French in the early 1600s.
From French Acadie, possibly derived from the Mi'kmaq word 'cadie' meaning 'place' or from the Greek 'Arcadia,' an idealized pastoral region. The French settlers adopted this name for their North American colony, which later became the English 'Acadia.'
The tragic expulsion of Acadians by British forces in 1755 scattered thousands of French-speaking colonists across North America and the Caribbean, and many eventually settled in Louisiana where their descendants became known as 'Cajuns'—a direct linguistic evolution of 'Acadian.' This diaspora is one of history's most significant forced migrations.
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