pidgin

[ pij-uh n ]
/ ˈpɪdʒ ən /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR pidgin ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an auxiliary language that has come into existence through the attempts by the speakers of two 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.
Also called contact language.

Origin of pidgin

First recorded in 1875–80; extracted from pidgin English

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH pidgin

pidgin pigeon

Words nearby pidgin

pid, piddle, piddling, piddock, pidgeon, pidgin, pidgin english, pidgin sign english, pidginize, pidyon haben, pie

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Words related to pidgin

patois, argot, vernacular, jargon, lingo, neologism, patter, vulgarity, vulgarism, cant, colloquialism, shoptalk, creole

Example sentences from the Web for pidgin

British Dictionary definitions for pidgin

pidgin
/ (ˈpɪdʒɪn) /

noun

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

Word Origin for pidgin

C19: perhaps from Chinese pronunciation of English business