Advertisement

Creole (n.)

"person born in a country but of a people not indigenous to it," c. 1600, from French créole (17c.), from Spanish criollo "(person) native to a locality," from Portuguese crioulo, diminutive of cria "person (especially a servant) raised in one's house," from criar "to raise or bring up," from Latin creare "to make, bring forth, produce, beget," from PIE root *ker- (2) "to grow."

The exact sense varies with local use. Fowler (1926) writes: "Creole does not imply mixture of race, but denotes a person either of European or (now rarely) of negro descent born and naturalized in certain West Indian and American countries." In U.S. use, applied to descendants of French and Spanish settlers in Louisiana from at least 1792. Of languages, from 1879. As an adjective, from 1748.

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of Creole from WordNet
1
creole (n.)
a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages;
2
Creole (n.)
a person of European descent born in the West Indies or Latin America;
Creole (n.)
a person descended from French ancestors in southern United States (especially Louisiana);
3
Creole (adj.)
of or relating to a language that arises from contact between two other languages and has features of both;
Creole (adj.)
of or relating to or characteristic of native-born persons of French descent in Louisiana;
From wordnet.princeton.edu