| 释义 |
pistareen|pɪstəˈriːn|
Also 8 pistereen, 9 -arene.
[app. a popular formation from peseta.]
An American or West Indian name for a small Spanish silver coin formerly current there.
1774J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 10 So I gave pistareens enough among the children to have paid twice for my entertainment. 1788M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 432 Gave him refreshments, oats, and a pistereen. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 212 A pistareen's worth of bows for a dollar. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. iii, I ask him to change a pistareen.
b. attrib. or as adj. Concerned with small matters; petty, paltry; cf. picayune.
1860Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 310 Now and then, an amiable parson..believes in a pistareen Providence. 1861Holland Less Life xi. 156 Mr. Emerson becomes equally flippant and irreverent when he speaks of a ‘pistareen Providence’. |