Word of the Day: PICAYUNE
Trivial or trifling
picayune (adj) - having little value or importance; petty, paltry, or insignificant [pik-ee-yoon]
BREAKDOWN: The word picayune comes from the name of a coin, specifically the half-real. This 19th-century Spanish colonial coin worth about six cents was popular in the regions around Louisiana and Florida. The word’s origins can be traced to the French picaillon meaning money or referring to a specific coin, which itself derived from the Provençal picaioun. Ironically, Picayune is also the name of the largest city in Pearl River County, Mississippi, but, to be fair, cities in Pearl River County are apparently very, very small.
“The key is the ability, whether innate or conditioned, to find the other side of the rote, the picayune, the meaningless, the repetitive, the pointlessly complex. To be, in a word, unborable … If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.” —David Foster Wallace
[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily or obviously derived from classical roots.]
> Ironically, Picayune is also the name of the largest city in Pearl River County, Mississippi, but, to be fair, cities in Pearl River County are apparently very, very small.
Haha, funny.
The semantic journey from 'specific coin worth six cents' to 'anything trivial' is such a clean example of pejoration. A real monetary value became synonymous with worthlessness — not because six cents was nothing, but because it was the smallest denomination worth naming.
And the Pearl River County detail is perfect irony: a city named after a tiny coin, surrounded by cities that are apparently very, very small.