Creole

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Related to Creole: Cajun

Cre·ole

(krē′ōl′)

1. A person of European ancestry born in the West Indies or Spanish America.

a. A person descended from or culturally related to the original French settlers of the southern United States, especially Louisiana.

b. The French dialect spoken by these people.

3. A person descended from or culturally related to the Spanish and Portuguese settlers of the Gulf States.

4. often creole A person of mixed African and European ancestry who speaks a creolized language, especially one based on French or Spanish.

5. A black slave born in the Americas as opposed to one brought from Africa.

6. creole A creolized language.

7. Haitian Creole.

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Creoles.

2. creole Cooked with a spicy sauce containing tomatoes, onions, and peppers: shrimp creole; creole cuisine.

[French créole, from Spanish criollo, person native to a locality, from Portuguese crioulo, diminutive of cria, person raised in the house, especially a servant, from criar, to bring up, from Latin creāre, to beget; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

creole

(ˈkriːəʊl)

(Languages) a language that has its origin in extended contact between two language communities, one of which is generally European. It incorporates features from each and constitutes the mother tongue of a community. Compare pidgin

adj

1. (Languages) denoting, relating to, or characteristic of creole

2. (Cookery) (of a sauce or dish) containing or cooked with tomatoes, green peppers, onions, etc

[C17: via French and Spanish probably from Portuguese crioulo slave born in one's household, person of European ancestry born in the colonies, probably from criar to bring up, from Latin creāre to create]

Creole

(ˈkriːəʊl)

1. (Peoples) a native-born person of European, esp Spanish, ancestry

2. (Peoples) a native-born person of mixed European and African ancestry who speaks a French or Spanish creole

3. (Peoples) (in Louisiana and other Gulf States of the US) a native-born person of French ancestry

4. (Languages) the creolized French spoken in Louisiana, esp in New Orleans

adj

5. (Peoples) of, relating to, or characteristic of any of these peoples

6. (Languages) of, relating to, or characteristic of any of these peoples

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Cre•ole

(ˈkri oʊl)

n.

1. (now usu. in historical contexts)

a. a member of the French-speaking, generally urban population of Louisiana that claims descent from the region's earliest French and Spanish settlers.

b. Also, Cre′ole of col′or. a member of any of several French-speaking communities of Louisiana of mixed black and French or Spanish ancestry.

2. (sometimes l.c.)

a. criollo (def. 1).

b. a person born in the West Indies or Mauritius but of European, usu. French, descent.

3. (usu. l.c.) a pidgin that has become the native language of a speech community. Compare pidgin (def. 1).

a. Louisiana Creole.

b. Haitian Creole.

adj.

5. (sometimes l.c.) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Creole or Creoles.

6. (usu. l.c.) made with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices and, often, served with rice.

[1595–1605; < French < Sp criollo < Portuguese crioulo native, derivative of criar to bring up < Latin creāre to create]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	Creole - a person of European descent born in the West Indies or Latin America American - a native or inhabitant of a North American or Central American or South American country
	2.	Creole - a person descended from French ancestors in southern United States (especially Louisiana) American - a native or inhabitant of the United States
	3.	creole - a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages natural language, tongue - a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language Haitian Creole - a creole language spoken by most Haitians; based on French and various African languages
Adj.	1.	Creole - of or relating to a language that arises from contact between two other languages and has features of both; "Creole grammars"
	2.	Creole - of or relating to or characteristic of native-born persons of French descent in Louisiana; "Creole cooking"

Translations

criollo

kreolikreolit

créole

creolo

creolencreool creools

креол креолизованный язык креолка

Creole

[ˈkriːəʊl]

A. ADJ → criollo

B. N

1. (= person) → criollo/a m/f

2. (Ling) → lengua f criolla

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Creole

[ˈkriːəʊl] n

(= West Indian) → créole mf

(= American) → créole mf

creole

Creole [ˈkriːəʊl]

n (= patois) → créole m
French Creole → créole m français

adj [dish, culture] → créole

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Creole

(Ling) → Kreolisch nt

(= person) → Kreole m, → Kreolin f

adj → kreolisch; he is Creole → er ist Kreole

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

creole

[ˈkriːəʊl] adj & n → creolo/a

References in classic literature ?

Pontellier, though she had married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles; never before had she been thrown so intimately among them.

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Cassy was dressed after the manner of the Creole Spanish ladies,--wholly in black.

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"'I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October A.D.--(a date of fifteen years back), Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield Hall, in the county of -, and of Ferndean Manor, in -shire, England, was married to my sister, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta his wife, a Creole, at--church, Spanish Town, Jamaica.

Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!--as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before.

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Father Ignatius performed the offices of the church, in a little chapel attached to the estate of Don Augustin; and long ere the sun had begun to fall, Middleton pressed the blushing and timid young Creole to his bosom, his acknowledged and unalienable wife.

Don Augustin had all the feelings of a father, but they were smothered in the lassitude of a Creole. Like his spiritual governor, he began to think that they had been wrong in consigning one so pure, so young, so lovely, and above all so pious, to the arms of a heretic: and he was fain to believe that the calamity, which had befallen his age, was a judgment on his presumption and want of adherence to established forms.

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"How they cringe and bow to that Creole, because of her hundred thousand pounds!

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Society loves creole natures, and sleepy languishing manners, so that they cover sense, grace and good-will: the air of drowsy strength, which disarms criticism; perhaps because such a person seems to reserve himself for the best of the game, and not spend himself on surfaces; an ignoring eye, which does not see the annoyances, shifts, and inconveniences that cloud the brow and smother the voice of the sensitive.

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Rubelle struck me as being a small, wiry, sly person, of fifty or thereabouts, with a dark brown or Creole complexion and watchful light grey eyes.

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Louisiana Creoles fraternized with farmers from Indiana; Kentucky and Tennessee gentlemen and haughty Virginians conversed with trappers and the half-savages of the lakes and butchers from Cincinnati.

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The latter, generally French creoles, live comfortably in cabins and log-huts, well sheltered from the inclemencies of the seasons.

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On these occasions there was a degree of magnificence of the purse about them, and a peculiar propensity to expenditure at the goldsmith's and jeweler's for rings, chains, brooches, necklaces, jeweled watches, and other rich trinkets, partly for their own wear, partly for presents to their female acquaintances; a gorgeous prodigality, such as was often to be noticed in former times in Southern planters and West India creoles, when flush with the profits of their plantations.

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