Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Gipsies’ cant, a trail marked by handfuls of grass dropped at intervals.
- noun See
patrin .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several coded
signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by oneRom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She said that the trail was called patteran, because the gypsies of old were in the habit of making the marks with the leaves and branches of trees, placed in a certain manner.
The Romany Rye George Henry Borrow 1842
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She said that the trail was called patteran, because the gypsies of old were in the habit of making the marks with the leaves and branches of the trees, placed in a certain manner.
The Romany Rye A Sequel to 'Lavengro' George Henry Borrow 1842
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She said that the trail was called patteran, because the gypsies of old were in the habit of making the marks with the leaves and branches of trees, placed in a certain manner.
The Romany Rye a sequel to "Lavengro" George Henry Borrow 1842
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There is also another kind of patteran, which is more particularly adapted for the night; it is a cleft stick stuck at the side of the road, close by the hedge, with a little arm in the cleft pointing down the road which the band have taken, in the manner of a signpost; any stragglers who may arrive at night where cross-roads occur search for this patteran on the left-hand side, and speedily rejoin their companions.
The Pocket George Borrow George Henry Borrow 1842
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She said that the trail was called patteran, because the gypsies of old were in the habit of making the marks with the leaves and branches of trees, placed in a certain manner.
Isopel Berners The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825 George Henry Borrow 1842
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“What is the Romany patteran?” she broke off to ask.
CHAPTER XVII 2010
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When the patteran was fashioned, he tossed it on the trail before him and noted that Selim passed over without treading upon it.
CHAPTER XXI 2010
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Thus, on the ranch here, a patteran could be made of manzanita and madrono, of oak and spruce, of buckeye and alder, of redwood and laurel, of huckleberry and lilac.
CHAPTER XVII 2010
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Two sprigs, crossed in certain ways and left upon the trail, compose the patteran.
CHAPTER XVII 2010
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She danced like a moth in a flame -- a wandering woman in the fire unquenchable that burns convention out of gipsy hearts, and makes the patteran -- the trail -- the only way worth while.
The Eye of Zeitoon Mundy, Talbot, 1879-1940 1920
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