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picayune/picayunish

Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:31 am
by dsteve54
picayune/picayunish....I can look it up and all. It is just a word(s) that might make an interesting choice for Word of the Day discussion, and I did not seem to find it in the Good Word archive.

[ no reply needed....I can see it in dictionaries, etymology lists, etc. ]

Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:33 am
by dsteve54
....and it may be a springboard for the word "picky", which may or may not have been discussed; I did not check.

Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:12 am
by Perry Lassiter
Intesting idea. Never associated picky with picayune. Now I wonder if it went the other way from pick, to choose, to picky, over-choose, to picayune?

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:21 am
by Audiendus
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first recorded date of picayune as 1804, meaning "coin of small value". Probably from Louisiana French picaillon, "coin worth 5 cents", from Provençal picaio, "money". I wondered if it might have some connection with the prefix pico, "one-trillionth" (i.e. a tiny value), but apparently not.

It is not a word much used in the UK.

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 12:47 pm
by LukeJavan8
I don't see nor hear picayune used much, but interesting
discussion here.