patois

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

Singular

• (US) enPR: păʹtwä', päʹtwä', IPA^(key): /ˈpæˌtwɑ/, /ˈpɑˌtwɑ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

Plural

• (US) enPR: păʹtwäz', păʹtwä', päʹtwäz', päʹtwä', IPA^(key): /ˈpæˌtwɑz/, /ˈpæˌtwɑ/, /ˈpɑˌtwɑz/, /ˈpɑˌtwɑ/
• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

patois (countable and uncountable, plural patois)

1. A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard.
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. 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.

• POSITA, patios, spatio-, taipos

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.

• IPA^(key): /pa.twa/

patois m (plural patois)

1. patois (French dialect)
2. patois (any regional dialect)
   • Gustave Flaubert - Salammbô, page 29.

     On entendait, à côté du lourd patois dorien, retentir les syllabes celtiques bruissantes comme des chars de bataille,

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

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

• “patois” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• optais, posait, postai

From French patois.

patois m (invariable)

1. patois

• ospita, posati, postai, sopita, spiato