Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hab n.

[Fr. habitant, an inhabitant. The name was adopted deliberately by the Montréal Canadiens, to display their pride as French, rather than British, Canadians]

(Can.) a derog. term for a share-cropper, a tenant farmer.

Show quotations
[US]Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 158: Habitante, Hab Any French-Canadian, especially rural dwellers. Literally, a habitante is an ‘inhabitant’; figuratively, it means a tenant-farmer or share-cropper on a great estate, such as were operated in Quebec by French nobility and the Catholic Church until into this century.