patois

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pat=ois

CIDE DICTIONARY

patois, n. [F.].

 A dialect peculiar to the illiterate classes; a provincial form of speech.  [1913 Webster]
"The jargon and patois of several provinces."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

patois, n. (pl. same) the dialect of the common people in a region, differing fundamentally from the literary language.

Etymology

F, = rough speech, perh. f. OF patoier treat roughly f. patte paw

THESAURUS

patois

Acadian, Anglo-Indian, Brooklynese, Cajun, Canadian French, Cockney, French Canadian, Gullah, Midland, Midland dialect, New England dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch, Yankee, Yorkshire, argot, bundle of isoglosses, cant, class dialect, colloquial, dialect, dialect atlas, dialect dictionary, gibberish, gobbledygook, idiom, isogloss, jargon, lingo, linguistic atlas, linguistic community, linguistic island, local dialect, localism, mumbo jumbo, patter, phraseology, provincialism, regional accent, regionalism, scatology, slang, speech community, subdialect, taboo language, vernacular, vocabulary, vulgar language, vulgate

ROGET THESAURUS

patois

Neologism

N neology, neologism, newfangled expression, nonce expression, back-formation, caconym, barbarism, archaism, black letter, monkish Latin, corruption, missaying, malapropism, antiphrasis, pun, paranomasia, play upon words, word play, double- entendre, palindrome, paragram, anagram, clinch, abuse of language, abuse of terms, dialect, brogue, idiom, accent, patois, provincialism, regionalism, localism, broken English, lingua franca, Anglicism, Briticism, Gallicism, Scotticism, Hibernicism, Americanism, Gypsy lingo, Romany, pidgin, pidgin English, pigeon English, Volapuk, Chinook, Esperanto, Hindustani, kitchen Kaffir, dog Latin, macaronics, gibberish, confusion of tongues, Babel, babu English, chi-chi, figure of speech, byword, colloquialism, informal speech, informal language, substandard language, vernacular, vulgar language, obscene language, obscenity, vulgarity, jargon, technical terms, technicality, lingo, slang, cant, argot, St. Gile's Greek, thieves' Latin, peddler's French, flash tongue, Billingsgate, Wall Street slang, pseudology, pseudonym, Mr, So-and-so, wha d'ye call 'em, whatchacallim, what's his name, thingummy, thingumbob, je ne sais quoi, neologist, coiner of words, neologic, neological, archaic, obsolete, colloquial, Anglice.