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patois (PAT-wah, PAH-twah, pa-TWA) - n., a regional dialect, esp. a rural dialect; non-standard speech, jargon, cant, argot.
In French, the strong connotation of non-standard is substandard: patois is the crude talk of lower-class provincials. In English, this connotation is not as strong, though there is a shading of being hard to understand. From French, of course, adopted around 1640, in the first meaning above, originally clumsy/incomprehensible speech, from Old French patoier, handle clumsily/treat roughly/gesticulate, apparently from pate, paw, of uncertain origin (suggestions include unattested words in Vulgar Latin and Old Franconian).
And that's a week of language words. Next week, it'll be the usual unsorted heap.
---L.
In French, the strong connotation of non-standard is substandard: patois is the crude talk of lower-class provincials. In English, this connotation is not as strong, though there is a shading of being hard to understand. From French, of course, adopted around 1640, in the first meaning above, originally clumsy/incomprehensible speech, from Old French patoier, handle clumsily/treat roughly/gesticulate, apparently from pate, paw, of uncertain origin (suggestions include unattested words in Vulgar Latin and Old Franconian).
And that's a week of language words. Next week, it'll be the usual unsorted heap.
---L.
