patois |ˈpaˌtwä; ˈpä-|
noun ( pl. same )
the dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country : the nurse talked to me in a patois that even Italians would have had difficulty in understanding.• the jargon or informal speech used by a particular social group : the raunchy patois of inner-city kids.ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: French, literally ‘rough speech,’ perhaps from Old French patoier ‘treat roughly,’ from patte ‘paw.’
"By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist
who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down
patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I
split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split, and when
I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a
few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open
and the mind relaxed and attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is
all I have."
- Raymond Chandler
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