Fishburn and Hughes: From the Portuguese crioulo, 'nursling', a term. originally applied to 'whites' born of European parentage. With increasing miscegenation, however, it was given to natives of mixed blood. The word has wide applications, from the high-ranking local élite, the leaders of the Independence Movement, to the native mestizo masses, often with pejorative connotations. As R.B. Scobie observes, 'In the nineteenth century, criollo became synonymous with shiftiness and laziness' (Buenos Aires from Plaza to Suburb, Oxford 1974, 219)." (53)
