piastre

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Italian piastra (“plate of wood or metal; coin”), probably from Latin emplastra.

Noun

piastre (plural piastres)

  1. (now historical) A Spanish or Spanish-American coin and unit of currency, originally worth eight real.
    • 1630, John Smith, True Travels, in Kupperman 1988, p. 39:
      The Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of gold, and Tissue, Pyasters, Chicqueenes and Sultanies, which is gold and silver, they unloaded in foure and twentie houres, was wonderfull [...].
  2. A form of currency originally used in the Ottoman Empire, and now used in the Middle Eastern countries of Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan and Syria.

Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian piastra.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pjastʁ/
  • (Quebec) IPA(key): /pjas(t(ʁ))/
  • (Louisiana) IPA(key): /pjas/

Noun

piastre f (plural piastres)

  1. (historical) piastre (one of several historical units of currency)
  2. (Quebec, Louisiana, colloquial) buck, dollar. Former official Canadian French equivalent of the word dollar, as found on old currency.
    • 2009, Robert Maltais, Le Curé du Mile End, page 195:
      Non, non, c'est juste une joke. Garde-lé, ton vingt piastres.
      No, no, I was just joking. Keep it, your twenty bucks.

Further reading

Italian

Noun

piastre f

  1. plural of piastra

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.