picayuneとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

The noun is borrowed from southern French picaillon, pécaillon, picayon (“type of small foreign coin; (くだけた用法, especially in the 複数形) 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.

発音

• (Received 発音) enPR: ʹpĭk'ə'yo͝on, IPA^(key): /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɪkəˈjun/, /-ki-/
• 韻: -uːn
• ハイフネーション: pic‧a‧yune

名詞

picayune (複数形 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 または 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.

派生語

• picayuneish, picayunish
• picayunishness
• picayunity

形容詞

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^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, ISSN 0362-4331, OCLC 971436363:

     [T]here are four competing groups promoting the language – and they cannot agree even on how it should be spelled (Kernewek, Kernowek, Kernuak かつ 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

派生語

• picayunely
• picayuneness

Notes

参照

Further reading

• picayune on Wikipedia.
• picayune (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.
• Picayune in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)