patois

name

1. Alternative form of Patwa.

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French patois (“regional dialect or language”), c. 1635.

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

   “[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.”

   “*The Expanse'*s patois has become, like Klingon and Dothraki, the show's great unifier—the slang all devotees speak.”

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. Ellipsis of Jamaican Patois.
5. Jargon or cant.

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