picayune en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- ʹpĭk'ə'yo͝on (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˌpɪkəˈjun/ (General-American)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /-ki-/ (General-American)
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.
Meanings
-
(US, informal) Of little consequence; small and of little importance; petty, trivial.
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.
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:[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.
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: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.
1966 September 22, Kurt Vonnegut, “The Fall of a Climber”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4:
- (US, informal) Childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things; small-minded.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most picayune | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more picayune | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Synonyms
inconsiderable · piteous · paltry · immaterial · petty · mean · piddling · foolish · like a fart in a windstorm · petty · trifling · vain · base · piddly · contemptible · insignificant · null · unimportant · trivial · wretched · floccinaucinihilipilificatious · picayunish · tin-pot · inconsequential · silly · picayune · indifferent · unweighty · slight · pitiful · ignorable · pissant · negligible · worthless · peevish · pointless · picayunish · idle · futile · pissass · two-bit · meager · frivolous · nondescript · for the birds · nothingburger · miserable · ticky-tacky · minor · simple