picayune

pic·a·yune  (pk-yn)

adj.

1. Of little value or importance; paltry. See Synonyms at trivial.

2. Petty; mean.

n.

1. A Spanish-American half-real piece formerly used in parts of the southern United States.

2. A five-cent piece.

3. Something of very little value; a trifle: not worth a picayune.

---

[Louisiana French picaillon, small coin, from French, from Provençal picaioun, from picaio, money, perhaps from Old Provençal piquar, to jingle, clink, from Vulgar Latin *piccre, to pierce; see pique.]

---

pica·yunish adj.

---

picayune [ˌpɪkəˈjuːn]

adj also picayunish US and Canadian informal

1. of small value or importance

2. mean; petty

n

1. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Currencies) the half real, an old Spanish-American coin

2. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Currencies) US any coin of little value, esp a five-cent piece

[from French picaillon coin from Piedmont, from Provençal picaioun, of unknown origin]

picayunishly  adv

picayunishness  n

Thesaurus

Adj.

1.

picayune - (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction" fiddling, footling, niggling, piddling, piffling, trivial, petty, lilliputian, little colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech unimportant - not important; "a relatively unimportant feature of the system"; "the question seems unimportant"

Translations

picayune [ˌpɪkəˈjuːn] (US) ADJ → insignificante, de poca monta

picayune, picayunish

adj (US inf: = paltry) → gering, minimal; (= petty) → kleinlich