<P> Pidgins have historically been considered a form of patois, unsophisticated simplified versions of their lexifiers, and as such usually have low prestige with respect to other languages . However, not all simplified or "unsophisticated" forms of a language are pidgins . Each pidgin has its own norms of usage which must be learned for proficiency in the pidgin . </P> <P> A pidgin differs from a creole, which is the first language of a speech community of native speakers that at one point arose from a pidgin . Unlike pidgins, creoles have fully developed vocabulary and patterned grammar . Most linguists believe that a creole develops through a process of nativization of a pidgin when children of acquired pidgin - speakers learn and use it as their native language . </P> <P> Pidgin derives from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean' business; an action, occupation, or affair' (the earliest being from 1807). The term pidgin English ("business English"), first attested in 1855, shows the term in transition to referring to language, and by the 1860s the term pidgin alone could refer to Pidgin English . The term was coming to be used in the more general linguistic sense represented by this article by the 1870s . </P> <P> A popular folk - etymology for pidgin is English pigeon, a bird sometimes used for carrying brief written messages, especially in times prior to modern telecommunications . </P>

Which english word is thought to be the origin of the word pidgin