Editing Pidgin (section)

== Etymology ==
''Pidgin'' derives from a [[Chinese Language|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 came to be used in a more general linguistic sense to refer to any simplified language by the late 19th century.<ref name="oed.com">"pidgin, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, January 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/143533. Accessed 23 January 2018.</ref><ref name=etymonline>{{Citation | title = Online Etymology Dictionary | url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pidgin}}</ref>

A popular [[false etymology]] for ''pidgin'' is English ''[[pigeon]]'', a bird sometimes [[Pigeon post|used for carrying]] brief written messages, especially in times prior to modern telecommunications.<ref name="oed.com"/><ref>{{Citation |last=Crystal |first=David |author-link=David Crystal |contribution=Pidgin |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1997}}</ref>