9 December 2016

patois

[pat-wah, pah-twah; French pa-twa]

noun, plural patois [pat-wahz, pah-twahz; French pa-twa]

1. a regional form of a language, especially of French, differing from the standard, literary form of the language.
2. a rural or provincial form of speech.
3. jargon; cant; argot.

Origin of patois

1635-1645; < French: literally clumsy speech; akin to Old French patoier to handle clumsily, derivative of pate paw

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for patois

Historical Examples

His voice was deep, sonorous, and somewhat touched with the true Kerry patois.
Bits of Blarney
R. Shelton Mackenzie

He only spoke in the patois, which Frank understood very well.
The Silver Lining
John Roussel

French was to be no longer a hodgepodge or a patois, but the pure and perfect speech of the king and his court.
A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance
Joel Elias Spingarn

There is no mistaking it; it is peculiar to Pont du Sable, and note, too, her patois !
A Village of Vagabonds
F. Berkeley Smith

“The young patron is mistaken,” interposed the Indian, speaking a patois of the lingoa-geral.
Our Young Folks–Vol. I, No. II, February 1865
Various

Their language was a Spanish patois ; their voices were sharp and disagreeable.
The Scalp Hunters
Mayne Reid

“His Excellency is in there,” said the old man, in his Sicilian patois.
My Strangest Case
Guy Boothby

The man spoke in patois French, the woman in her native Cree language.
The Buffalo Runners
R.M. Ballantyne

patois, a name the French give to a corrupt dialect of a language spoken in a remote province of a country.
The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
Edited by Rev. James Wood

“Lower that spar, my lads,” he added, in the patois the men used.
Rob Harlow’s Adventures
George Manville Fenn

Anagram

so pita

Today’s quote

Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.

– Paulo Coelho

On this day

9 December 1906 – birth of Sir Douglas Nichols KCVO, OBE. Aboriginal activist, raising awareness of aboriginal issues, including treating aborigines with dignity and as people. He played for Carlton football club in the A-grade Victorian Football League (VFL), leaving after racist treatment and joining the Northcote football club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Nicholls became a minister and social worker. In 1957, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1972 he was the first aborigine to be knighted. In 1976, he became the 28th governor of South Australia, the first aborigine to be appointed to a vice-regal position. He died on 4 June 1988.

9 December 1947 – Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sandar Valiabbhai Patel announces that India and Pakistan have reached an agreement on the borders of the two countries following partition … except for the issue of Kashmir, which is unresolved to this day.

9 December 1990 – Polish dissident, Solidarity union leader and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa wins Polish presidential election in a landslide. Solidarity was the Soviet Bloc’s first independent trade union. Walesa presided over Poland’s transition from a communist state to a post-communist state.