from Sp.
criollo "person native to a locality," from Port. crioulo, dim. of
cria "person (especially a servant) raised in one's house," from criar "to raise or bring up," from L. creare "to produce, create." The exact sense varies with local use. ORIGINALLY with no connotation of color or race
1. a person born in the West Indies or Spanish America but of European, usually Spanish, ancestry.
2. a person born in Louisiana but of usually French ancestry.
3. (sometimes
lowercase) a person of mixed black and European, esp. French or Spanish, ancestry who speaks a creolized form of French or Spanish.
4. (usually lowercase) a creolized language; a pidgin that has become the native language of a speech community.
5. the creolized
French language of the descendants of the original settlers of Louisiana. Cajun
6. Haitian
Creole.
7. a black person born in the New World, as distinguished from one brought there from Africa. –adjective
8. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Creole or
Creoles.
9. a spicy sauce or dish made esp. with tomatoes, peppers, onions, celery, and seasonings, and often served
with rice.
10. bred or growing in a country, but of foreign origin, as an animal or plant.
Beyoncé just HAD to write a song about her being part
Creole, not just "regular black"...as if the world didn't know this about her already.
Apparently she
credits her beauty on this fact.