habitant, a. and n.
(ˈhæbɪtənt)
Also 5 aby-, 5–6 -aunt(e.
[a. F. habitant, ad. L. habitānt-em, pr. pple. of habitāre to dwell in, inhabit.]
A. adj. Inhabiting, indwelling.
| 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. xii. i. 230 A habitant spirit. |
B. n.
1. One who dwells or resides in a place; a resident, inhabitant, indweller.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos Prol. 10 This present boke is necessarye to alle cytezens and habytaunts in townes. c 1500 Melusine xxx. 221 Thabytants of the Cyte. 1530 Palsgr. 228/2 Habytaunt, a dweller. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 74 The habitans in vallye remayned. 1642 Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 86 The various habitants of the Earth. a 1721 Prior Callimachus i. 5 To Heaven's great habitants. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iv. vi, The little city of which he was now an habitant. |
| fig. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 588 Sin, there in power before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxxi, O Love! no habitant of earth thou art. |
‖ 2. (pronounced (abitɑ̃); pl. often as formerly in F. habitans). A native of Canada (also of Louisiana) of French descent; one of the race of original French colonists, chiefly small farmers or yeomen.
| 1789 Quebec Gaz. 5 Feb. 4/1 My Brother Habitants will be..convinced of the expediency of the regulation. 1791 J. Long Voy. & Trav. Indian Interpr. 167 The Canadians are particularly fond of dancing, from the seigneur to the habitant. 1836 Sir F. B. Head 28 Oct. in Narrative vi. (1839) 130 The real interests of the French habitans of Lower Canada. 1839 Earl of Durham Rep. Brit. N. Amer. 19 Members of the family of some habitant. 1855 W. Irving Washington II. viii. 96 To ascertain the feelings of the habitans, or French yeomanry. 1856 Olmstead Slave States 682 A hamlet of cottages, occupied by Acadians, or what the planters call habitans, poor white, French Creoles. 1881 Harper's Mag. Nov. 823 Pirogue as the habitants call it. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 10 Apr. 6/2 From school Drummond became a clerk in a telegraph office at Bord-à-Plouffe, a little village on the Rivière des Prairies, where he was in the midst of habitants, lumbermen, and voyageurs. 1966 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard 27 Aug. 4/3 As the old habitant joke had it, it's okay to t'row out de hank [sc. anchor], but suppose there's no rope on the hank? |