A unit of land area formerly used in France and French colonies, equivalent to roughly 0.85 acres or about one-third of a hectare.
From Old French arpent, ultimately from Latin areapenita (land measured by rod). The unit became standardized in medieval France and was brought to North America by French colonizers, where it remained in use long after independence.
The arpent is why some neighborhoods in New Orleans and Quebec have oddly narrow, elongated properties—they're still divided according to the 17th-century French colonial surveying system, creating a living map of French colonial history in modern American cities.
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