| 释义 |
Creole, n., a.|ˈkriːəʊl|
Also 7–8 criole.
[a. F. créole, ad. Sp. criollo, native to the locality, ‘country’; believed to be a colonial corruption of *criadillo, dim. of criado ‘bred, brought up, reared, domestic’, pa. pple. of criar to breed, etc.:—L. creāre to create. According to some 18th c. writers originally applied by S. American Blacks to their own children born in America as distinguished from Blacks freshly imported from Africa; but D'Acosta, 1590, applies it to Spaniards born in the W. Indies.]
A. n. In the West Indies and other parts of America, Mauritius, etc.: orig. A person born and naturalized in the country, but of European (usually Spanish or French) or of African Negro race: the name having no connotation of colour, and in its reference to origin being distinguished on the one hand from born in Europe (or Africa), and on the other hand from aboriginal.
a. But now, usually, = creole white, a descendant of European settlers, born and naturalized in those colonies or regions, and more or less modified in type by the climate and surroundings.
The local use varies: in the European colonies of the W. Indies it is usually applied to the descendants of any Europeans there naturalized; in Mauritius to the naturalized French population. It is not now used of the people of Spanish race in the independent South American states, though sometimes of the corresponding natives of Mexico, and in the U.S. it is applied only to the French-speaking descendants of the early French settlers in Louisiana, etc.
1604E. Grimstone tr. D'Acosta's Hist. W. Indies iv. xxv. 278 Some Crollos (for so they call the Spaniards borne at the Indies). 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1698) I. iv. 68 An English Native of St. Christophers, a Cirole, as we call all born of European Parents in the West Indies. 1737Common Sense (1738) I. 280 As to his Birth and Parentage, I cannot say whether he is a Native American or a Creole, nor is it material. 1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. i. iv. 29 The Whites may be divided into two classes, the Europeans, and Creoles, or Whites born in the Country. Ibid. II. ix. vii. 375 (Nova Scotia) French families, some Europeans, and others Creoles of the place itself and from..Newfoundland. 1832Marryat N. Forster xx, [She] was a creole—that is, born in the West Indies, of French parents. 1836W. Irving Astoria (1849) 199 A French Creole; one of those haphazard wights of Gallic origin, who abound upon our frontier, living among the Indians like one of their own race. 1864Sat. Rev. 21 May, [In Mexico] there are about a million..Creoles—that is, whites of pure Spanish extraction.
b. Now less usually = creole negro: A Black person born in the West Indies or America, as distinguished from one freshly imported from Africa.
1748Earthquake of Peru iii. 240 Criollos signifies one born in the Country; a Word made by the Negroes, who give it to their own Children born in those Parts. 1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. i. iv. 31 The class of Negroes is..again subdivided into Creoles and Bozares. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon i. (1864) 19 The term ‘Creole’ is confined to negroes born in the country.
2. A creolized language.
1879L. Hearn Creole Sk. (1924) 54, I explique myself to her, and she tell me in Creole—[etc.]. 1958C. F. Hockett Course Mod. Ling. xlix. 423 There are several examples of creoles in the Caribbean area, spoken largely by the descendants of escaped Negro slaves. 1962Listener 22 Nov. 868/3 A number of people working on Creoles met in Jamaica in 1959, and agreed to adopt Robert Hall's distinction between Creoles and Pidgins: a Pidgin is a first-generation lingua franca..spoken by everybody as a second language; when in subsequent generations it becomes the first language of a community, it is a Creole. 1965Tablet 22 May 587/2 Haiti, it appears, may soon have its vernacular, Creole, in the Mass. They already have a Creole missal... Chants, responses, and readings in Creole are to be found in it.
B. attrib. or adj.
1. a. Of persons: Born and naturalized in the West Indies, etc., but of European (or Black) descent; see A. Now chiefly applied to the native whites in the West Indies, the native French population in Louisiana, Mauritius, etc.
1748Earthquake of Peru iii. 230 A Criole Negro-Woman. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 34 Two negroes, belonging to a Creole gentleman, who..began to practise upon the French-horn. 1827O. W. Roberts Centr. Amer. 28 Creole descendants of Spanish adventurers. 1862J. M. Ludlow Hist. U.S. 316 note, There are creole whites, creole negroes, creole horses, &c.; and creole whites are, of all persons, the most anxious to be deemed of pure white blood.
b. Of animals and plants: Bred or grown in the West Indies, etc., but not of indigenous origin.
[1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. iv. vii. 162 The criollo or natural bread being unripe plantains..roasted. ] Ibid. II. vii. i. 17 Fruits..of the Creole kind, being European fruits planted there, but which have undergone considerable alterations from the climate.1836Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. xiv. 168 Three species of sugar-cane, the old Creole, the Otaheitan, and the Batavian. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 263 The active little animals known as ‘creole’ horses.
2. Belonging to or characteristic of a Creole.
1828G. W. Bridges Ann. Jamaica II. x. 9 A trait in the Creole character. 1839–40W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 27 In an old French creole village. 1884W. H. Bishop in Harper's Mag. Mar. 516/2 The people speak creole French.
3. Comb., as creole-crab, a West Indian species of crab.
1756P. Browne Jamaica (1779) 422 The larger hairy Creole-Crab with prickly claws. |