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Language is a Living Thing
Language is a living thing and Trinidadian English is an exciting, lyrical version of the mother tongue that has absorbed words from each nationality that has ruled, visited and lived there, a fact that makes our Trinidad and Tobago Dictionary a useful, sometimes insightful and often enlightening tool for visitors.
Understanding a few common phrases will, we guarantee, enhance your vacation experience. There is nothing Trinidadians love more than someone who is interested in, and understands a bit about, Trinidad culture.
Crash Course in Trini Creole English
The most important Trinidadian words you can learn are "fete" and "lime". A fete is a super-sized party that must include loud music, dancing and good food. A lime is a casual gathering of friends for the propose of doing nothing in particular. To lime is to hang out, to pass the time, to chill. More exotic words can be found in the Trinidad and Tobago Dictionary below...
Trinidad and Tobago Dictionary – Part 1 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A |
A'A!
An expression of surprise or indignation, spoken either very slowly in a questioning manner for effect, or quickly as an exclamation.
Ah
A substitute for both the first person singular "I" and the article "A". For example, ah going to get ah cokes - I am going to get a coke.
Ah Eh Able
An expression of exasperation, literally, I am not able. Give me patience. I can't keep up with you.
Ah Chuts!
A expressing of annoyance, vexation, exasperation, disappointment or disgust, similar in meaning and use to "Oh shucks".
All Now So
Presently, at the present time, at this moment. Tomorrow, all now so, we in Trinidad - tomorrow, at this time, we'll be in Trinidad.
Alloo Pie
East Indian delicacy, a soft fried bread filled with seasoned and spiced potato. A popular Trinidad festival food and appetizer.
All-Yuh
All of you. This group. Similar to American idiom "you-all". Also expressed as, all'a all-yuh - every last one of you, everyone, everybody.
Ax
Ask, as in to ax ah question. Same word and meaning but different pronunciation.
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B |
Bacchanal
1: Scandal, confusion, loud quarreling that can be overheard. 2: The merrymaking and noisy confusion associated with all carnival events.
Back-Back
1: To reverse, to step back. Doh back-back on meh – don't reverse into me. Back-back de car - reverse the car. Also expressed as, reverse back. 2: A suggestive dance in which the female dancer's bottom is pushed back against the front of the male dancer, and vice versa.
Bad Drive
To drive recklessly. To swerve a vehicle inconsiderately between moving traffic. To drive with complete disregard for others. To cut someone off in traffic.
Baigan
East Indian for melongene, egg-plant.
Balisier (pronounced Bal-ee-zay)
An exotic, red, tropical flower, that last for weeks. Heliconia species, belonging to the banana family. Flower used as symbol for the Peoples National Movement, one of Trinidad's political parties.
Bamsee
Posterior, rear end, behind, backside, bottom, buttocks. Often replaced by bumper in soca lyrics.
Barra (pronounced Ba-rah)
East Indian fried bread used to make doubles.
Batchac (pronounced Bah-chak)
Large red, leaf-cutter ant.
Batimamselle
A descriptive synonym for Dragonfly. The English word "Batty", meaning crazy, odd, eccentric, and the patios word for woman, combined to describe the erratic flying patterns of this common insect.
Bazodee
1: Totally confused, dizzy, giddy, lightheaded. In a state of shock. Disoriented after an accident. 2: A state of confusion caused by the opposite sex, head over heels in love.
Beat Pan, Beatin' Pan
To play a steel-pan by striking the notes in sequence, with rubber-tipped sticks so as to produce a melodious sound. Also, to play pan, playin' pan. See panist.
Behin' God Back
Behind God's back. A very distant place. A remote part of the island, so far away that even God can't see what is going on there. We were behin' god back when we visited an amazing Trinidad villa in Blanchisseuse.
Benay Balls
Tobago candy made from sesame seeds, honey and molasses.
Bhaji
East Indian for Spinach, a word now commonly used in Trinidad.
Blue Food
1: Dasheen, a root vegetable that has a blueish color when cooked. 2: Any Creole dish made with root vegetables (ground provisions like dasheen, eddoes, tanya, cassava, dumplings etc.), similar in meaning to "soul food".
Bol' Face
Bold Face. A pushy, unreasonable and shamelessly demanding person.
Break Away, Break 'Way
1: To dance wildly to a calypso tune. 2: A piece of music that is jumpy or up tempo, usually a fast moving portion of a calypso or soca tune.
Broughtupsy
Upbringing, conduct, character, manners.
Buljol
A breakfast or brunch dish, made from shredded salt-fish, onions, tomatoes, pepper, olive oil and sometimes avocado.
Bush Bath
A bath made with the extract of certain plants, the application of which is supposed to stop a period of bad luck, or cure a sickness.
Buss-Up-Shut
A descriptive synonym for Paratha Roti, a shredded roti that resembles a ripped up shirt.
Buh Wait Nah
But wait a moment, but hold on now, let me get this straight, be patient won't you.
Bus' Yuh Tail
1: To fall in an undignified manner, see catspraddle. 2: A very bad beating, to be thrashed either physically or in a sporting event.
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C |
Caccachat (pronounced Ca-ca-shat)
Periwinkle. Common garden plant, usually with pink or white flowers.
Calabash
A small tree with low spreading branches, which bares a hard shell gourds that were used extensively to make drinking utensils and bowls. The gourd can be shaped when young to produce different types of vessels.
Callaloo
1: A thick soup made from pureed dasheen leaves. 2: An unusual blend of ingredients, as in mix-up like callaloo.
Calypso
1: A lyrical and often topical musical commentary that is usually composed for, but not limited to, the Carnival season. Trinidadian folk music. 2: A musical beat indigenous to Trinidad and the West Indies that is of West African origin, and which was made internationally famous during the 1950s by Harry Belafonte, the Andrew Sisters and others.
Calypsonian
A person who composes and sings calypsos.
Calypso Tent
A venue featuring new calypsos and soca. Originally, a tent supported by a bamboo frame.
Carnival (pronounced Cah-na-vaal)
Farewell to the Flesh. The final indulgence before giving up wine, women and song for the 40 days of Lent. A pre-Lenten festival that begins almost immediately after Christmas in Trinidad. Actual celebrations start on Carnival Monday (Shrove Monday) with Jouvert and run for two days, ending with Las' Lap late on Carnival Tuesday (Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday). During Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, costumed bands parade in the streets of Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, Scarborough and other cities throughout the islands.
Carnival Band, J'ouvert Band
1: A group of Carnival revelers united by a theme; a troop, a group of masqueraders, people united in purpose (as in, a band of brothers) for the purpose of playing mas'. 2: An organization that produces and sells Carnival costumes to the public at Carnival time.
Cascadoux
A relatively small, freshwater catfish with very large scales. Legend has it that those who eat Cascadoux will return to Trinidad.
Cassava
Manioc root. A root vegetable. A ground provision that was grown and eaten by the Caribs and Arawaks, the original Trinidadians; Amerindians who lived in the Caribbean region for millennia before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. A tasty alternative to potato.
Catspraddle
To fall in an undignified manner, an embarrassing fall, to loose ones balance completely, to bus' yuh tail.
Chaconia
The bright red, orchid-like national flower of Trinidad and Tobago.
Channa
Chickpea. A large pea used in the preparation of doubles and other East Indian dishes.
Chip-chip
Butterfly Shells, small wedge shaped clams of assorted colours and patterns, usually found at low tide on the Trinidad East Coast beaches of Mayaro, Manzanilla and Balandra during chip-chip season, February through April. Make excellent cocktails and shellfish dishes.
Chip, Chipppin'
To step or walk in time with calypso and soca music, a dance-like shuffling march, an energy efficient gate used at carnival when dancing in a carnival band. As in, ah chippin' dong de road.
Chook, Chookin'
1: To stick, prod, poke, or puncture something. Ah picker chook meh – I've been stuck by a thorn. To chook someone' eye out – to take advantage of someone. To chook fire – to egg on someone in an argument, to add fuel to the fire in an argument. 2: To thrust your waist in a suggestive manner when dancing or winin', usually, to chook yuh wais'.
Cigal (pronounced See-gall)
Cicada, an insect that produce a shrill noise by rubbing the edges of it's wings together. The males are famous for their shrill chirping at night, which folklore interoperates as the insects callin' for rain.
Cocal
The coconut forest, made up of a collection of old coconut estates, that stretchs along Cocos Bay, from Manzanilla to Mayaro.
Coco Lilly
A small, orange sub species of Heliconias, which grow in wild profusion under the coconut trees of the Cocal.
Cocoa Tea
A beverage made from cocoa, usually consumed at breakfast. Sometimes also coffee tea, bush tea. A tea is made by seeping any edible plant in steaming water. A tea made with orange peel is sometimes used as a cooling, to cleanse the blood.
Coc'rico
Rufus Vented Chacalaca. Tobago's National Bird. See Our Tobago Villa experience for an encounter with a Coc'rico.
Commesse
Confusion, controversy.
Coo-Coo
Cornmeal and okra pudding. Originally Fu-Fu, a dish of direct West African origin.
Corbeaux (pronounced Co-bow)
Black Turkey Vulture. A common turkey-sized scavenger. We met some Corbeauxs while beachcombing on Manzanilla Beach.
Cote Ce Cote La (pronounced Co-tay-see Co-tay lah)
Patios meaning, to quote them. To spread a rumor. to pass along hearsay. Rumor has it that...
Cowheel Soup
A delicious soup made from the gelatinous heel bones of a cow.
Crab Back
A local delicacy made with local Blue Back or Mangrove crabs.
Crapaud (pronounced Cra-po)
A large, brown terrestrial species of frog.
Crapaud-foot Writin'
Very poor or illegible handwriting.
Creole
1: A local, having mixed parentage of European and African blood. 2: The version of English spoken in the Caribbean.
Creole Food
Hearty food based on African cooking traditions, usually includes root vegetables, ground provisions like dasheen, eddoes, tanya, cassava, and dumplings. See, blue food.
Cuff Dong
To eat heartily.
Cunumunu
Idiot. A stupid or foolish person.
Cut Ass, Cut Tail
A sound beating or trashing.
Trinidad Vocabulary for Visitors 101
No, the Trinidad and Tobago Dictionary above is not a complete resource; rather, it is a selection of common, interesting, and unique words that are used in Trinidad and Tobago, a word choice based primarily on their practicality to visitors.
Have fun browsing, learn, laugh and lime. Your Trinidad and Tobago holiday can begin today, right here, right now. Relax, kick off your shoes, put on your complementary beach slippers and enjoy...
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