Etymology

picayune

pic·a·yune
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Today it means: 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. Full definition →

French picaillon ← Occitan picalhon
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The story

  1. Occitan · derived frompiquar“to ring (bells); to knock, strike”
  2. Occitan · borrowed frompicalhon
  3. French · borrowed frompicaillon
  4. English todaypicayune

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.