patois

English

Etymology

1635, from French patois (“regional dialect or language”).

Pronunciation

Singular

• (General American) enPR: pătwäʹ, IPA^(key): /pæˈtwɑ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pătʹwä, IPA^(key): /ˈpætwɑː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ, -ætwɑː
• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

Plural

• (General American) enPR: pătwäzʹ, IPA^(key): /pæˈtwɑz/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pătʹwäz, IPA^(key): /ˈpætwɑːz/
• Rhymes: -ɑz, -ætwɑːz
• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

Noun

patois (countable and uncountable, plural patois)

1. A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard.
   • 1890, [Jacques] Élisée Reclus, “Java”, in A. H. Keane, editor, Oceanica (The Earth and Its Inhabitants; 14)‎^[1], New York: D. Appleton and Company, Inhabitants:

     [The Sundanese] are regarded as relatively barbarous, and in the company of Malays or Javanese, they are themselves ashamed of their dialect, which is looked on as a sort of rude patois.

2. Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France.
3. Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti).
4. (Jamaica) Jamaican Patois, a Jamaican creole language primarily based on English and African languages but also has influences from Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
5. Jargon or cant.
   • 2021 July 18, Christopher Flavelle, “Scorched, Parched and Now Uninsurable: Climate Change Hits Wine Country”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     In the patois of insurance, the winery will go bare into this year’s burning season, which experts predict to be especially fierce.

Alternative forms

• Patois

Synonyms

• (Jamaican creole language): Jamaican, Patwa, Jamaican Patois

Translations

regional dialect of a language

• Dutch: streektaal (nl) c
• Esperanto: loklingvo
• Galician: dialecto (gl) m
• Greek: ντοπιολαλιά (el) (ntopiolaliá)
• Portuguese: patoá (pt) m
• Serbo-Croatian: regiolekt m
• Spanish: dialecto (es) m
• Ukrainian: патуа́ n (patuá)

Anagrams

• patios, taipos, spatio-, topias, POSITA

French

Etymology

Inherited 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 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 *pent-/*pat- (“path; to go”). Cognate with Dutch pat, Low German pedden (“to step, tread”). Related to pad, path.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.twa/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

patois m (plural patois)

1. patois (French dialect)
   • 1862, Victor Hugo, Les Miserables Part 4, book 7, chapter 1:

     Depuis, deux puissants romanciers, dont l’un est un profond observateur du cœur humain, l’autre un intrépide ami du peuple, Balzac et Eugène Süe, ayant fait parler des bandits dans leur langue naturelle comme l’avait fait en 1828 l’auteur du Dernier jour d’un condamné, les mêmes réclamations se sont élevées. On a répété : — Que nous veulent les écrivains avec ce révoltant patois ? l’argot est odieux ! l’argot fait frémir !

     After two powerful novelists, one a deep observer of the human soul, the other an adventurous friend of the people, Balzac and Eugene Sue, made their bandit characters speak in their natural language just as the author of The Last Day of a Condemned Man had done in 1828, the same complaints were raised. Some said again and again, "What do these writers want to do to us with this disgusting dialect? The slang is terrible! The slang makes anyone shiver!

2. patois (any regional dialect)
   • 1862, Victor Hugo, Les Miserables Part 1, book 1, chapter 4:

     Né provençal, il s’était facilement familiarisé avec tous les patois du midi. Il disait : — Eh bé ! moussu, sès sagé ? comme dans le bas Languedoc. — Onté anaras passa ? comme dans les basses Alpes. — Puerte un bouen moutou embe un bouen froumage grase, comme dans le haut Dauphiné. Ceci plaisait beaucoup au peuple et n’avait pas peu contribué à lui donner accès près de tous les esprits. Il était dans la chaumière et dans la montagne comme chez lui. Il savait dire les choses les plus grandes dans les idiomes les plus vulgaires. Parlant toutes les langues, il entrait dans toutes les âmes.

     (Describing Bishop Myriel) Having been born in Provence, he easily became familiarized with all the [Occitan] dialects of the South. He would say, Eh bé! moussu, sès sagé?, as in the lower Languedoc, and Onté anaras passa? as in the Alps' lowlands, and Puerte un bouen moutou embe un bouen froumage grase, as in the upper Dauphiny. People loved this, and it had helped him greatly to get close access to all kinds of temperaments. Whether he was in a cottage or up in a mountain, he would feel at home. He knew how to speak of the highest things using the lowliest vulgar expressions. By speaking every tongue, he entered every soul.

3. (Louisiana) saying, maxim, proverb, adage

Derived terms

• patoiser

Descendants

• → Catalan: patuès
• → Danish: patois
• → English: patois
• → German: Patois
• → Italian: patois
• → Portuguese: patoá

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• optais, posait, postai

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French patois.

Noun

patois m (invariable)

1. patois

Further reading

• patois in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• ospita, posati, postai, sopita, spiato