pidgin
an auxiliary language that has come into existence through the attempts by the speakers of two or more different languages to communicate and that is primarily a simplified form of one of the languages, with a reduced vocabulary and grammatical structure and considerable variation in pronunciation.
(loosely) any simplified or broken form of a language, especially when used for communication between speakers of different languages.
Origin of pidgin
1- Also called con·tact lan·guage [kon-takt lang-gwij] /ˈkɒn tækt ˌlæŋ gwɪdʒ/ .
Words that may be confused with pidgin
- pidgin , pigeon
Words Nearby pidgin
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use pidgin in a sentence
Attempting to make conversation, the man said in Chinese pidgin, “You likee food?”
Dawkins had not been an hour in master's company before he knew that he had a pidgin to pluck.
Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush | William Makepeace ThackerayBlewitt knew this too: and bein very fond of pidgin, intended to keep this one entirely to himself.
Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush | William Makepeace ThackerayMy boy Arigita had often eaten human meat, and as he expressed it in his quaint pidgin English, “Pig no good, man he very good.”
Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines | H. Wilfrid WalkerSouth of that river the coast tribes speak largely pidgin English.
Their sole endeavour was to raise their position: sich considerable machen, as the Great Elector said in his quaint pidgin German.
German Problems and Personalities | Charles Sarolea
British Dictionary definitions for pidgin
/ (ˈpɪdʒɪn) /
a language made up of elements of two or more other languages and used for contacts, esp trading contacts, between the speakers of other languages. Unlike creoles, pidgins do not constitute the mother tongue of any speech community
Origin of pidgin
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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