picayune
/ˌpɪkəˈjun/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.41 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
American usage
noun
A person regarded as unworthy of respect or useless; also, something of very little value; a trifle.
American usage; Informal
noun
An argument, fact, or other issue raised (often intentionally) that distracts from a larger issue or fails to make any difference.
American usage; Informal
adj
Childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things; small-minded.
American usage; Informal
Example Sentences
- "He seeks to demonstrate that he is the heir to a British title, though he is in fact the orphan of American circus dwarfs. It has been proved to him that his parents were picayune, but he finds this unbearable."
- "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."
- "[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."
Etymology
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. The adjective is derived from the noun.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌpɪkəˈjun/
- British English: /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/