canton

1530s, from Middle French canton, from Old French canton (“corner”); heraldic sense from the 1570s, geographic sense from c. 1600.

• kanton

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæntn̩/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkæntɒn/ (especially in the flag sense)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

canton (plural cantons)

1. A division of a political unit.
   • 1912, Joseph McCabe (translator), We Must Take Sides; or, The Principal of Action (originally by Voltaire)

     These three millions live in a small canton of Egypt which cannot maintain twenty thousand people

   • 20 May, 1686, Gilbert Burnet, letter from Nimmengen

     There is another piece of Holbein's, […] in which, in six several cantons, the several parts of our Saviour's passion are represented.

   1. One of the states comprising the Swiss Confederation.
   2. A subdivision of an arrondissement of France.
   3. A division of Luxembourg, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.
   4. (obsolete) A subdivision of a county, of Quebec, Canada; equivalent to a township.
2. A small community or clan.
3. A subdivision of a flag, the rectangular inset on the upper hoist (i.e., flagpole) side (e.g., the stars of the US national flag are in a canton).
4. (heraldry) A division of a shield occupying one third of the chief, usually on the dexter side, formed by a perpendicular line from the top meeting a horizontal line from the side.
   • 1662 August 31 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 21 August 1662]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     The king gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms.

canton (third-person singular simple present cantons, present participle cantoning, simple past and past participle cantoned)

1. (transitive) To delineate as a separate district.
2. (transitive) To divide into cantons.
3. (transitive) To allot quarters to troops.

canton (plural cantons)

1. (obsolete) A song or canto.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     He came to whisper Wolsey.

• pancit canton

• Conant, Nacton, cannot, nonact, noncat

Inherited from Middle French canton, from Old French canton (from the 1240s), from Old Occitan canton (“corner; canton”) (recorded before 1218), adopted in Occitan from North Italian (Gallo-Italic, early Lombard) cantone (“edge, corner; canton”), ultimately representing Latin cant- (“rim (of a wheel)”) with the addition of the -ō (accusative -ōnem) suffix forming augmentatives in Romance.

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃.tɔ̃/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Audio

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canton m (plural cantons)

1. canton (of Switzerland, France or Luxembourg)
2. township (of Canada)
3. (heraldry) canton

• → German: Kanton

• “canton”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Gallo-Italic cantone. From canto + -one. Related to Latin canthus (“rim (of a wheel)”).

• IPA^(key): /kanˈtu/

• (file)

canton m (plural cantons)

1. corner
2. canton

• cantonal
• cantonar
• cantonada

Borrowed from French canton.

• IPA^(key): /kanˈton/

canton n (plural cantoane)

1. canton

• cantonal

• canton in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

canton m (plural cantoni)

1. corner

• cantonzsin