mont-de-piété

American  

[mawnd^uh-pyey-tey] / mɔ̃də pyeɪˈteɪ /

noun

French.

PLURAL

monts-de-piété

1. a public pawnbroking establishment that lends money on reasonable terms, especially to people with low incomes.

---

mont-de-piété British  

/ mɔ̃dpjete /

noun

1. (formerly) a public pawnshop

---

Etymology

Origin of mont-de-piété

First recorded in 1840–45; from French: literally “bank of pity,” from Italian monte di pietà

Example Sentences

CajaSur sprang from the 1995 merger of a local bank and a pawnshop, or mont-de-piété, which was founded in 1864 by the church to provide low-interest loans to the poor.

From The Wall Street Journal

A short time later he’d found a ticket from the shop in Mont-de-Piete in her room which proved that she’d pawned two bracelets.

From Literature

But, this war, badly extinguished, recommended under Innocent X. the successor of Urban: and, because the duke of Parma could not pay soon enough the enormous interests due to the ‘Mont-de-piete,’ Castro was confiscated, sacked, and razed, by order of the head of the church: on the ruins of this city, a column was raised with tills inscription, “Here Castro was.”

From Project Gutenberg

All articles pledged at the Mont-de-Piété, from February 4th, not exceeding in value ten francs, were ordered to be returned, and the Tuileries was decreed the future asylum of invalid workmen.

From Project Gutenberg

It was not by accident that I learned of the Masurel Mont-de-Piété; but when I went to the Municipal Secretary to ask him for some official account of its condition and its operation, that courteous functionary looked at me for a moment with astonishment and then said, 'I am delighted to give you what you want, and I assure you that, with one exception, you are the only foreigner who has ever asked for this information in the last seven years!

From Project Gutenberg