noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
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"‘I didnʼt know you can speak pidgin,’ he said and laughed."
"Forget money. That's my pidgin."
"The pidgin has no native speakers."
An amalgamation of two disparate languages, used by two populations having no common language as a lingua franca to communicate with each other, lacking formalized grammar and having a small, utilitarian vocabulary and no native speakers.
Common synonyms include: cant, contact language, dialect, hybrid, hybrid form, improvised.
The pidgin has no native speakers.
Pronounced /ˈpɪ.d͡ʒən/.
From pidgin English, from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of English business during trade in the Far East. All attestations of pidgin from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean “business; an action, occupation, or affair” (the earliest being from 1807). Other suggested derivations include: * Hebrew פִּדְיוֹן (pidyón, “exchange; trade; redemption”) * Chinese pronunciation of Portuguese ocupação (“occupation; business”) * South Seas pronunciation of beach * Portuguese baixo (“low”)