What is "creole"

Creole \Cre"ole\ (kr?"?l), n. [F. cr?ole, Sp. criollo, from an American negro word, perh. a corruption of a Sp. criadillo, dim. of criado servant, formerly also, child, fr. L. creatus, p. p. of creare to create. Cf. Create.] One born of European parents in the American colonies of France or Spain or in the States which were once such colonies, esp. a person of French or Spanish descent, who is a native inhabitant of Louisiana, or one of the States adjoining, bordering on the Gulf of of Mexico.

Note: ``The term creole negro is employed in the English West Indies to distinguish the negroes born there from the Africans imported during the time of the slave trade. The application of this term to the colored people has led to an idea common in some parts of the United States, though wholly unfounded, that it implies an admixture greater or less of African blood.''
--R. Hildreth.

Note: ``The title [Creole] did not first belong to the descendants of Spanish, but of French, settlers, But such a meaning implied a certain excellence of origin, and so came early to include any native of French or Spanish descent by either parent, whose nonalliance with the slave race entitled him to social rank. Later, the term was adopted by, not conceded to, the natives of mixed blood, and is still so used among themselves. . . . Besides French and Spanish, there are even, for convenience of speech, 'colored' Creoles; but there are no Italian, or Sicilian, nor any English, Scotch, Irish, or 'Yankee' Creoles, unless of parentage married into, and themselves thoroughly proselyted in, Creole society.''
--G. W. Cable.

Creole \Cre"ole\ (kr?"?l), a. Of or pertaining to a Creole or the Creoles.

Note: In New Orleans the word Creole is applied to any product, or variety of manufacture, peculiar to Louisiana; as, Creole ponies, chickens, cows, shoes, eggs, wagons, baskets, etc.

c.1600, from French créole (17c.), from Spanish criollo "person native to a locality," from Portuguese crioulo, diminutive of cria "person (especially a servant) raised in one's house," from criar "to raise or bring up," from Latin creare "to produce, create" (see create).\n

\nThe exact sense varies with local use. Originally with no connotation of color or race; Fowler (1926) writes: "Creole does not imply mixture of race, but denotes a person either of European or (now rarely) of negro descent born and naturalized in certain West Indian and American countries." In U.S. use, applied to descendants of French and Spanish settlers in Louisiana from at least 1792. Of languages, from 1879. As an adjective, from 1748.

a. 1 Pertaining to or characteristic of someone who is a Creole. (from 18th c.) 2 (context of a person English) That is a Creole; especially, born in a colonized country different from that of his or her ancestors. (from 18th c.) 3 Designating a creolized language. (from 18th c.) 4 (context cookery English) Prepared according to a cooking style developed in a Creole area, now especially that of Louisiana, characterised by a mixture of European and African influences. (from 19th c.) n. 1 A descendant of white European settlers who is born in a colonized country. (from 17th c.) 2 Anyone with mixed ancestry born in a country colonized by white Europeans, now especially one who speaks a creole language. (from 18th c.) 3 Someone of black African descent who is born in the Caribbean or Americas (originally as opposed to an African immigrant). (from 18th c.) n. Any specific creole language, especially that of Haiti. (from 18th c.)

Creole may refer to:

Creole is an album by David Murray released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 1997 and released in 1998 the album features performances by Murray with Michel Cilla, Max Cilla, Ray Drummond, Billy Jabali Hart, D.D. Jackson, Klod Kiavue, François Landreseau, Gérard Lockel, and James Newton.

Creole is a lightweight markup language, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines. The idea was conceived during a workshop at the 2007 International Symposium on Wikis. An EBNF grammar and XML interchange format for Creole have also been published. Creole was designed by comparing major wiki engines and using the most common markup for a particular wikitext element. If no commonality was found, the wikitext of the dominant wiki engine MediaWiki was usually chosen.

On July 4, 2007, the version 1.0 (final) of Creole was released, and a two-year development freeze was implemented to allow time for authors of wiki engines to adopt the new markup. Although development to the standard itself is frozen, discussion in the developer community regarding good practices in wiki markup design and about possible additions and changes for future Creole versions continues.

As of 2012, adoption of Creole is limited. Many wiki systems offer it as an option, but few use it by default and few wiki websites enable this optional feature.