sb., a. Also 7–8 criole. [a. F. créole, ad. Sp. criollo, native to the locality, ‘country’; believed to be a colonial corruption of *criadillo, dim. of criado ‘bred, brought up, reared, domestic,’ pa. pple. of criar to breed, etc.:—L. creāre to CREATE. According to some 18th-c. writers originally applied by S. American negroes to their own children born in America as distinguished from negroes freshly imported from Africa; but D’Acosta, 1590, applies it to Spaniards born in the W. Indies.]
A. sb. In the West Indies and other parts of America, Mauritius, etc.: orig. A person born and naturalized in the country, but of European (usually Spanish or French) or of African Negro race: the name having no connotation of color, and in its reference to origin being distinguished on the one hand from born in Europe (or Africa), and on the other hand from aboriginal.
a. But now, usually, = creole white, a descendant of European settlers, born and naturalized in those colonies or regions, and more or less modified in type by the climate and surroundings.
The local use varies: in the European colonies of the W. Indies it is usually applied to the descendants of any Europeans there naturalized; in Mauritius to the naturalized French population. It is not now used of the people of Spanish race in the independent South American states, though sometimes of the corresponding natives of Mexico, and in the U. S. it is applied only to the French-speaking descendants of the early French settlers in Louisiana, etc.
1604. E. Grimstone, trans. D’Acosta’s Hist. W. Indies, IV. xxv. 278. Some Crollos, (for so they call the Spaniards borne at the Indies).
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. iv. 68. An English Native of St. Christophers, a Cirole, as we call all born of European Parents in the West Indies.
1737. Common Sense (1738), I. 280. As to his Birth and Parentage, I cannot say whether he is a Native American or a Creole, nor is it material.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), I. I. iv. 29. The Whites may be divided into two classes, the Europeans, and Creoles, or Whites born in the Country. Ibid., II. IX. vii. 375. (Nova Scotia) French families, some Europeans, and others Creoles of the place itself and from … Newfoundland.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xx. [She] was a creole—that is, born in the West Indies, of French parents.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria (1849), 199. A French Creole; one of those haphazard wights of Gallic origin, who abound upon our frontier, living among the Indians like one of their own race.
1864. Sat. Rev., 21 May, 629/2. [In Mexico] there are about a million to a million and a half of Creoles—that is, whites of pure Spanish extraction.
b. Now less usually = creole negro: A negro born in the West Indies or America, as distinguished from one freshly imported from Africa.
1748. Earthquake of Peru, iii. 240. Criollos signifies one born in the Country; a Word made by the Negroes, who give it to their own Children born in those Parts.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), I. I. iv. 31. The class of Negroes is … again subdivided into Creoles and Bozares.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, i. (1864), 19. The term ‘Creole’ is confined to negroes born in the country.
B. attrib. or adj.
1. a. Of persons: Born and naturalized in the West Indies, etc., but of European (or negro) descent; see A. Now chiefly applied to the native whites in the West Indies, the native French population in Louisiana, Mauritius, etc.
1748. Earthquake of Peru, iii. 230. A Criole Negro-Woman.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 34. Two negroes, belonging to a Creole gentleman, who … began to practise upon the French-horn.
1827. O. W. Roberts, Centr. Amer., 28. Creole descendants of Spanish adventurers.
1862. J. M. Ludlow, Hist. U. S., 316, note. There are creole whites, creole negroes, creole horses, &c.; and creole whites are, of all persons, the most anxious to be deemed of pure white blood.
b. Of animals and plants: Bred or grown in the West Indies, etc., but not of indigenous origin.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3) [I. IV. vii. 162. The criollo or natural bread being unripe plantains … roasted.] Ibid., II. VII. i. 17. Fruits … of the Creole kind, being European fruits planted there, but which have undergone considerable alterations from the climate.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xiv. 168. Three species of sugar-cane, the old Creole, the Otaheitan, and the Batavian.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 263. The active little animals known as ‘creole’ horses.
2. Belonging to or characteristic of a Creole.
1828. G. W. Bridges, Ann. Jamaica, II. x. 9. A trait in the Creole character.
1839–40. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 27. In an old French creole village.
1884. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., March, 516/2. The people speak creole French.
3. Comb., as Creole-crab, a West Indian species of crab.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1779), 422. The larger hairy Creole-Crab with prickly claws.
