- Allemands: Germans
- anse: Cove
- arpent: Old French measurement of land; slightly less than one acre
- Blessed Sacrament: Consecrated host (bread) received by Christians as the body of Jesus
- bonnet carré: English for square bonnet
- broadsides: Posters
- Cannes Brulee: Burnt reeds or cane; area covering Tchopitoulous Coast to St. Charles Parish boundary
- carpetbagger: Person from the North who traveled to the South following the Civil War to seek political and/or financial gain
- circa: About; in approximate dates
- circular order: An instruction of a highest federation or land authority
- Code Noir: Set of Louisiana laws governing the conduct of slaves
- colony: A settlement far away from the country which governs it
- commandant: Person in charge of a colonial government entity
- Compagne des Indies: Originally led by John Law, this company had a 25-year management contract and trade monopoly with France to establish the Louisiana Colony.
- concession: Large tract of land used for agricultural purposes to feed the colony
- concessionaires: Citizens awarded government grants
- côté: French word for coast
- crevasse: French for deep crack or crevice, as in a levee
- delta: Triangle-shaped area of land at the mouth of a river
- demonstration library: Pilot program for the library system
- diocese: Church territory under the jurisdiction of a bishop
- ecclesiastical: Of the church or clergy
- El Puerto des Alemanes: Spanish for the “coast of the Germans”
- engages: settlers to farm the land for the concessionaires (legally between free men and slaves)
- German Coast: Area today referred to as the Parishes of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist; settled by the Germans
- home rule: Local form of government
- indigenous: Occurring naturally in an area
- integration (school): Various parts of the system made into one
- interdiction: Punishment by which the faithful remaining in communion with the Church are forbidden certain sacraments or prohibited from performing certain sacred acts
- L’anse aux Outardes: Cove of the bustards; site of the first east bank settlement in New Sarpy
- land grant: Piece of land granted to an individual or group by the government
- Le premier ancien village allemand: First old German village
- Les Deaux Freres: Name of German pest ship, translates to “two brothers;” first ship to arrive in Biloxi with Germans in 1721
- levee: Dike used to restrain Mississippi River from spreading over the land during high water seasons
- Little Red Church: 1860 frame church painted red which became a landmark on the east bank of the Mississippi
- Mississippi Bubble: General reference to John Law’s Company of the Indies’ financial plan for reviving the French economy through his new world Mississippi company. So called because it continued to grow in size.
- monstrance: Church vessel used for displaying the consecrated host
- mulatto: Person of black and white ancestry
- ouragan: Hurricane
- parish: Division of local government similar to county; was derived from the French “paroisse” and the Spanish “parroquia;” the ecclesiastical division under the charge of a curate
- pest ship: Ship filled with disease and unbearable conditions, which delivered the Germans to the Biloxi shores
- police jury: Form of local government since after the Louisiana Purchase
- port: City with a harbor where ships can anchor
- Portefaix: Ship which carried Karl Fredrick Darensbourg to shores of Old Biloxi
- progenitor: Originator of a line of descent
- Reconstruction: Period after Civil War during which the government was rebuilt
- scalawags: Southerners who supported the federal plan of reconstruction
- secession: Withdrawal from an organization, group, or union
- Sieur: Old French title of rank or respect; sir
- “Troop of Horse:” Military unit’s name during the War of 1812
- Union forces: Forces from the North
