Definition of "patois"

patois

/pæˈtwɑ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural patois
1. A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard.
  Quotations
  [The Sundanese] are regarded as relatively barbarous, and in the company of Malays or Javanese, they are themselves ashamed of their dialect, which is looked on as a sort of rude patois.
  1890, [Jacques] Élisée Reclus, “Java”, in A. H. Keane, editor, Oceanica (The Earth and Its Inhabitants; 14)‎, New York: D. Appleton and Company, Inhabitants
2. Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France.
3. Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti).
4. (Jamaica) Jamaican Patois, a Jamaican creole language primarily based on English and African languages but also has influences from Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
5. Jargon or cant.
  Quotations
  In the patois of insurance, the winery will go bare into this year’s burning season, which experts predict to be especially fierce.
  2021 July 18, Christopher Flavelle, “Scorched, Parched and Now Uninsurable: Climate Change Hits Wine Country”, in The New York Times‎