Portuguese-based creole languages used to distinguish locally born black people of African descent from those who had been brought from Africa as slaves. In time, however, this generic sense was lost, and the word "crioulo" or its derivatives (like "Creole" and its equivalents in other languages) became the name of several specific Upper Guinean communities and their languages: the Guinean people and their Kriol language, Cape Verdean people and their Kriolu language, all of which still today have very vigorous use, suppressing the importance of official standard Portuguese. The oldest Portuguese-based creole are the so-called "crioulos" of Upper Guinea, born around the Portuguese
Portuguese Renaissance the Portuguese "queijo", "meza", table in Swahili, from the Portuguese "mesa", and "botan", buton, from "botão", "kappa", cover, from "capa", and from the various Japanese words of Portuguese origin. Simultaneously, following the expansionist and knowledge seeking nature of the Portuguese Renaissance, the Portuguese language imported many words from foreign idioms, such as "cachimbo", meaning pipe, from the Kimbundu "kixima", and "algodão", meaning cotton, from the Arabic "al-qutun". The Portuguese Renaissance was a golden age for literary works in Portugal. The abundance of funds and interest lead to the creation of some of the best known pieces of the Portuguese language.