Dictionary
Cre•ole
Pronunciation: (krē'ōl), [key]—
n.
1. a person born in the West Indies or Spanish America but of European, usually Spanish, ancestry.
2. a person born in Louisiana but of usually French ancestry.
3. (sometimes l.c.) a person of mixed black and European, esp. French or Spanish, ancestry who speaks a creolized form of French or Spanish.
4. (
usually l.c.) a creolized language; a pidgin that has become the native language of a speech community. Cf.
pidgin.
5. the creolized French language of the descendants of the original settlers of Louisiana. Cf.
Cajun.
6. See
Haitian Creole.
7. (
usually l.c.)
Archaic.a black person born in the New World, as distinguished from one brought there from Africa.
—
adj.
1. (sometimes l.c.) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Creole or Creoles.
2. (
usually l.c.)
Cookery.indicating a spicy sauce or dish made esp. with tomatoes, peppers, onions, celery, and seasonings, and often served with rice.
3. (sometimes l.c.) bred or growing in a country, but of foreign origin, as an animal or plant.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
