Patois, pronounced pat-waa or sometimes pat-waa-z, is generally held to mean any language that is non-standard. The best bet seems to be that it originated from the Old French Patoier, meaning “to handle clumsily”.
In English, a patois could be a regional dialect or a form of Pidgin English, such as the English spoken in parts of Hawaii and New Guinea. Thse are not just corrupted forms of English, but have their own words and structure (although the pidgin for Air Condidtioning is “win’ machin”, which I think is very cool (pun intended).
