Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Patois
Paˊtois′
Definition 2024
patois
patois
English
Noun
patois (plural patois)
- A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard.
- Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France.
- Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti).
- Jamaican Patois, a Jamaican Creole language primarily based on English and African languages but also has influences from Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
- Jargon or cant.
Translations
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Anagrams
French
Etymology
From Middle French patois (“local dialect”), from Old French patois (“incomprehensible speech, rude language”), alteration (due to influence of the suffix -ois in words relating to nationalities and languages) of earlier *patoi, a deverbal of Old French patoier (“to gesticulate, handle clumsily, paw”), from pate (“paw”), from Vulgar Latin *patta (“paw, foot”), from Frankish *patta (“paw, sole of the foot”), from Proto-Germanic *pat-, *paþa- (“to walk, tread, go, step”), of uncertain origin and relation. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pent-/*(s)pat- (“path; to walk”), a variant of Proto-Indo-European *pent-/*pat- (“path; to go”). Cognate with Dutch pat, Low German pedden (“to step, tread”). Related to pad, path.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pa.twa/
Noun
patois m (plural patois)
- patois (French dialect)
- patois (any regional dialect)
- On entendait, à côté du lourd patois dorien, retentir les syllabes celtiques bruissantes comme des chars de bataille, Gustave Flaubert - Salammbô, page 29.