tiles


Note:  Do not rely on this information. It is very old.

Creole

Creole (Span, criollo, a diminutive of criado. lit. created, a creature, a well-bred educated person), a term originally and properly applied to the whites of pure Spanish descent in the Spanish colonies; then adopted by the French (creole, whence the English form) in an analogous sense; later used loosely, especially by English writers, for any descendants of the Spaniards, French, and Portuguese, whether pure or mixed, where the white element predominates; lastly applied; to blacks of pure descent (Brazil), to the issue of whites and Mestizos (Peru) and to Mestizos or half-castes generally (Alaska). Both in Spanish and Portuguese criado has the secondary meaning of servant or slave, which may explain the later confusion and baser use of the word. Malcriado, in Spanish and Portuguese, and malcreato in Italian, mean ill-bred, rude, unmannerly.