canton

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“
The headsman of the canton is my father; were the fact publicly known, the heartless and obdurate laws would compel me to be his successor.

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Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A small territorial division of a country, especially one of the states of Switzerland.
  2. noun A subdivision of an arrondissement in France.
  3. noun Heraldry A small, square division of a shield, usually in the upper right corner.
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Examples (50)

  • The adult citizens of each canton were thenceforth to meet, for electoral purposes, in primary assemblies, to name two candidates for the office of juge de paix (i.e., magistrate) and town councillor, and to choose the members of the “electoral colleges” for the arrondissement and for the Department. —  The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 1 of 2)
  • The clergy in this canton, as in most, if not all the others, are supported by the state. —  A Residence in France
  • Perhaps the canton could be colored blue, though the combination with the red field would overly resemble the flags of Burma and Taiwan. —  United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal
  • "Mapping the canton was a challenging project as the aerial images analyzed were collected in August, leading to dark shadows in the urban areas which are difficult to handle," said Stéphane Couderq, Director of GeoDataNetwork.
  • In 2000 the people of Cotacachi decided that they would like to live in an ecological canton, the first of this kind in Latin America (5). —  Permaculture Research Institute of Australia
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Old French, from Old Italian cantone, augmentative of canto, corner, from Vulgar Latin *cantus; see cant1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. = German canton (but Swiss G. usually ort: see ord), from French canton = Spanish canton = Portuguese cantão = Italian cantone, from Middle Latin canto (n-) (also cantonum), a region, district, quarter of a city, also a squared stone, from cantus (later Old French cant = Spanish Portuguese Italian canto), a corner: see cant.
  2. = French cantonner; from the noun.
 

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/ˈkæntən/
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