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patois

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A regional dialect, especially one without a literary tradition.
  • noun Nonstandard speech.
  • noun The special jargon of a group; cant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dialect peculiar to a district or locality, in use especially among the peasantry or uneducated classes; hence, a rustic, provincial, or barbarous form of speech.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dialect peculiar to the illiterate classes; a provincial form of speech.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard.
  • noun Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France.
  • noun Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago& Haiti).
  • noun A Jamaican Creole language primarily based on English and African languages but also has influences from Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
  • noun Jargon or cant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard
  • noun a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, incomprehensible or crude speech, local dialect, from patoier, to gesticulate (like one unable to speak), speak crudely, from pate, paw, from Vulgar Latin *patta, probably originally imitative of the sound of one object striking another, such as the footfall of an animal.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1635, from French patois ("regional dialect or language"). See patois.

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Examples

  • The posts included a headshot of an African-American teenager and fake “quotes” written in patois rife with words like “dis” and “dat.”

    Seattle Times Boots Five “Partner” Blogs Over Questionable April Fool’s Posts « PubliCola 2010

  • (That this mighty maternal figure speaks a Yiddish patois is an unlooked-for bonus.)

    Hobbes in the Himalayas 2005

  • (That this mighty maternal figure speaks a Yiddish patois is an unlooked-for bonus.)

    Hobbes in the Himalayas 2005

  • (That this mighty maternal figure speaks a Yiddish patois is an unlooked-for bonus.)

    Hobbes in the Himalayas 2005

  • Matt sang bouncy little ditties in Creole patois or Caribbean dialect.

    Perseus Spur May, Julian, 1931- 1998

  • Moving, he shouted in Malay patois, a dialect he and Tak had agreed upon for future communication, rather than a Chinese dialect which might be understood by the tanjian.

    The White Ninja Lustbader, Eric 1990

  • The mere fact that you know the word patois shows that you must be mighty well educated.

    Behind the Beyond and Other Contributions to Human Knowledge Stephen Leacock 1906

  • They spoke to me in patois, which I did not understand, and seemed surprised to see us all in our nightgowns, forgetting that we had little else to put on till they had brought the luggage.

    The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton William Henry Burton Wilkins 1897

  • A little later a small herd of cattle passed, driven to pasture by a stolid Alsatian, who replied to the soldiers 'questions in German patois and shrugged his heavy shoulders like a Frenchman.

    The Maids of Paradise 1899

  • To which the guides responded with local songs in German patois: _Mi Vater isch en Appenzeller ... aou ... aou_ ...

    Tartarin On The Alps Alphonse Daudet 1868

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