picayune
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picayune
- /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/ UK
- /ˌpɪkəˈjun/ US
- /-ki-/ US
Rhymes with -uːn
Where it comes from
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.
noun picayunes
- 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.
- A coin worth five cents (a nickel) or some other low value.
-
A person regarded as unworthy of respect or useless; also, something of very little value; a trifle.
Similar: absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody, no one, nothing
- An argument, fact, or other issue raised (often intentionally) that distracts from a larger issue or fails to make any difference.
adjective more picayune · most picayune
-
Of little consequence; small and of little importance; petty, trivial.
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.
Similar: picayunish, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable, immaterial, inconsequential
- Childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things; small-minded.
Talk about this word "picayune." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/picayune. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. picayune. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/picayune "picayune." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/picayune.Cite this
@misc{picayune_2026,
title = {picayune},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/picayune},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
