picayune

[pik-ee-yoon, pik-uh-]

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adjective Also pic·a·yun·ish. Informal.

of little value or account; small; trifling: a picayune amount.
petty, carping, or prejudiced: I didn't want to seem picayune by criticizing.

noun

(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

Related formspic·a·yun·ish·ly, adverbpic·a·yun·ish·ness, noun

Synonyms for picayune

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1. trivial, insignificant. 2. narrow-minded.

Picayune

[pik-uh-yoon, pik-ee-]

noun

a town in SE Mississippi.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for picayune

diminutive, everyday, frivolous, immaterial, incidental, inconsequential, insignificant, irrelevant, little, meager, mean, meaningless, minor, minute, negligible, nonessential, paltry, petty, piddling, puny

Examples from the Web for picayune

Contemporary Examples of picayune

The administration enthusiastically traded winning the future for a picayune present gain.
Will Jack Lew Win the Future?
Megan McArdle
January 10, 2013
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 Weak
David R. Dow
June 25, 2012
But his evaluation admitted that portions at the restaurant were “picayune, and desserts are something of a question mark.”
Four Stars!
Isabel Wilkinson
August 25, 2009

Historical Examples of picayune

I give him a picayune, now and then; and you see he dresses well.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
If we were only there, our chances wouldn't be worth a picayune.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
I shall not proceed with the play for that picayune sum before me.
Desert Dust
Edwin L. Sabin
This mystified me, but to object to the tent, of course, would have been picayune.
The Prairie Mother
Arthur Stringer
They ride like the devil, fight like the devil, but don't care a picayune for anything.
The Crisis, Complete
Winston Churchill

British Dictionary definitions for picayune

picayune

adjective Also: picayunish US and Canadian informal

of small value or importance
mean; petty

noun

the half real, an old Spanish-American coin
US any coin of little value, esp a five-cent piece

Derived Formspicayunishly, adverbpicayunishness, noun

Word Origin for picayune

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

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.