''patois'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''patois'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260207202820-00-⌔

patois - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

patois (countable and uncountable, plural patois)

• 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.¹
  • ✤ ﹡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.
• Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti).
• (Jamaica) Ellipsis of Jamaican Patois.
• 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.³

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Singular

• (General American) enPR: pătwäʹ, IPA: /pæˈtwɑ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pătʹwä, IPA: /ˈpæ.twɑː/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɑ, -ætwɑː
• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

Plural

• (General American) enPR: pătwäzʹ, IPA: /pæˈtwɑz/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pătʹwäz, IPA: /ˈpæ.twɑːz/
• Rhymes: -ɑz, -ætwɑːz
• Hyphenation: pat‧ois

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 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: ↩

2. 2017 April 5, Emily Dreyfuss, “That Cool Dialect on The Expanse Mashes Up 6 Languages”, in WIRED ‎${}^{[2]}$, archived from the original on 25 January 2022: ↩

3. 2021 July 18, Christopher Flavelle, “Scorched, Parched and Now Uninsurable: Climate Change Hits Wine Country”, in The New York Times ‎${}^{[3]}$, →ISSN, archived from the original on 1 August 2021: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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