picayune
[pik-ee-yoon, pik-uh-]
- of little value or account; small; trifling: a picayune amount.
- petty, carping, or prejudiced: I didn't want to seem picayune by criticizing.
- (formerly, in Louisiana, Florida, etc.) a coin equal to half a Spanish real.
- any small coin, as a five-cent piece.
- Informal. an insignificant person or thing.
Origin of picayune
1780–90; < Provençal picaioun small copper coin (compare French picaillons), derivative of an onomatopoetic base *pikk- beat, here referring to the coining of coppers
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. trivial, insignificant. 2. narrow-minded.
Picayune
[pik-uh-yoon, pik-ee-]
- a town in SE Mississippi.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for picayune
Contemporary Examples
The administration enthusiastically traded winning the future for a picayune present gain.
To see just how picayune the debate got, take a look at the opinions.
Don’t Believe the Hype: Supreme Court Decision on Juvenile Life Without Parole Is WeakDavid R. Dow
June 25, 2012
But his evaluation admitted that portions at the restaurant were “picayune, and desserts are something of a question mark.”
Historical Examples
I give him a picayune, now and then; and you see he dresses well.
Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher Stowe
If we were only there, our chances wouldn't be worth a picayune.
Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher Stowe
I shall not proceed with the play for that picayune sum before me.
Desert DustEdwin L. Sabin
This mystified me, but to object to the tent, of course, would have been picayune.
The Prairie MotherArthur Stringer
They ride like the devil, fight like the devil, but don't care a picayune for anything.
The Crisis, CompleteWinston Churchill
picayune
- of small value or importance
- mean; petty
- the half real, an old Spanish-American coin
- US any coin of little value, esp a five-cent piece
Word Origin
C19: from French picaillon coin from Piedmont, from Provençal picaioun, of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for picayune
n.
1804, "coin of small value," probably from Louisiana French picaillon "coin worth 5 cents," earlier the French name of an old copper coin of Savoy (1750), from Provençal picaioun "small copper coin," from picaio "money," of uncertain origin. Adjectival figurative sense of "paltry, mean" recorded from 1813.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper