creole Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a person of European descent born in the West Indies or Latin America
  2. noun a person descended from French ancestors in southern United States (especially Louisiana)
  3. noun a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages
  4. adjective of or relating to a language that arises from contact between two other languages and has features of both
    • Creole grammars
  5. adjective of or relating to or characteristic of native-born persons of French descent in Louisiana
    • Creole cooking

WordNet

Cre"ole noun
Etymology
F. crole, Sp. criollo, from an American negro word, perh. a corruption of a Sp. criadillo, dim. of criado servant, formerly also, child, fr. L. creatus, p. p. of creare to create. Cf. Create.
Definitions
  1. One born of European parents in the American colonies of France or Spain or in the States which were once such colonies, esp. a person of French or Spanish descent, who is a native inhabitant of Louisiana, or one of the States adjoining, bordering on the Gulf of of Mexico. ✍ "The term creole negro is employed in the English West Indies to distinguish the negroes born there from the Africans imported during the time of the slave trade. The application of this term to the colored people has led to an idea common in some parts of the United States, though wholly unfounded, that it implies an admixture greater or less of African blood." R. Hildreth. ✍ "The title [Creole] did not first belong to the descendants of Spanish, but of French, settlers, But such a meaning implied a certain excellence of origin, and so came early to include any native of French or Spanish descent by either parent, whose nonalliance with the slave race entitled him to social rank. Later, the term was adopted by, not conceded to, the natives of mixed blood, and is still so used among themselves. . . . Besides French and Spanish, there are even, for convenience of speech, 'colored' Creoles; but there are no Italian, or Sicilian, nor any English, Scotch, Irish, or 'Yankee' Creoles, unless of parentage married into, and themselves thoroughly proselyted in, Creole society." G. W. Cable.
Cre"ole adjective
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to a Creole or the Creoles. ✍ In New Orleans the word Creole is applied to any product, or variety of manufacture, peculiar to Louisiana; as, Creole ponies, chickens, cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, etc.

Webster 1913