picayune

English
WOTD – 17 January 2021

Etymology
A picayune (noun sense 1) or Spanish half-real coin minted in Mexico in 1799.[n 1]

The noun is borrowed from southern French picaillon, pécaillon, picayon (“type of small foreign coin; (informal, especially in the plural) cash, money”), and from its etymon Occitan picalhon, picaioun (“cheaply made Savoyan-Piedmontese coin that was rapidly demonetized; (by extension) cash, money”), probably from Occitan piquar (“to ring (bells); to knock, strike”) (referring to the clinking of coins in a pocket), originally imitative.[1]

The adjective is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ʹpĭk'ə'yo͝on, IPA(key): /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌpɪkəˈjun/, /-ki-/
  • Rhymes: -uːn
  • Hyphenation: pic‧a‧yune

Noun

picayune (plural picayunes) (chiefly US)

  1. (especially Louisiana, historical) A small coin of the value of six-and-a-quarter cents; a Spanish coin with a value of half a real; a fippenny bit.
  2. (by extension, archaic) A coin worth five cents (a nickel) or some other low value.
  3. (figuratively, informal) A person regarded as unworthy of respect or useless; also, something of very little value; a trifle.
    (person unworthy of respect or useless): Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonentity
    (something of very little value): Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trifle
  4. (figuratively, informal) An argument, fact, or other issue raised (often intentionally) that distracts from a larger issue or fails to make any difference.

Derived terms

Translations
something of very little value — see trifle

Adjective

picayune (comparative more picayune, superlative most picayune) (chiefly US, informal)

  1. Of little consequence; small and of little importance; petty, trivial.
    Synonyms: picayunish; see also Thesaurus:insignificant
    • 1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:
      It's also representative of a psychological syndrome that I notice has gotten steadily worse as the Cruise wears on, a mental list of dissatisfactions and grievances that started picayune but has quickly become nearly despair-grade.
    • 2005 November 17, Sarah Lyall, “In an old Celtic revival, spelling is a test of wills”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      [T]here are four competing groups promoting the language – and they cannot agree even on how it should be spelled (Kernewek, Kernowek, Kernuak and Curnoack, among others). It might seem like a picayune matter, akin to the rivalry in the film "Monty Python's Life of Brian" between the Judean People's Front, the Judean Popular People's Front and the People's Front of Judea. But the issue is deadly serious to speakers of Cornish.
  2. Childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things; small-minded.
    Synonyms: peevish, petty

Derived terms

Translations
of little consequence — see trivial
childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things — see small-minded

Notes
  1. From the collection of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

References
  1. “picayune, n. and adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2006; “picayune, adj. and n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading
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