piastre

/ pɪˈæstə /

noun

1. (formerly) the standard monetary unit of South Vietnam, divided into 100 cents
2. a fractional monetary unit of Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria worth one hundredth of a pound; formerly also used in the Sudan
3. another name for kuruş
4. a rare word for piece of eight

Word History and Origins

Origin of piastre¹

C17: from French piastre, from Italian piastra d'argento silver plate; related to Italian piastro plaster

Example Sentences

Saddled by unexpected expenses, they watch every piastre; at home, all were well-off enough to take holidays, even to Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

From Los Angeles Times

For generations, Egypt's government has fed the public by distributing subsidized flour to bakeries, which sell bread for as little as 5 piastres a loaf, less than one U.S. cent.

From Reuters

My landlord invariably gives me too little change for a piastre, and when I tell him of it, he coolly fetches the remainder.

From Project Gutenberg

Their pay is eighty piastres a month, with rations of bread for themselves and of barley for their animals, but the pay is often nine months in arrear, or they receive it in depreciated paper.

From Project Gutenberg

The Spaniards, already half-beggared, disagreed about the ransom; the bolder and the more avaricious refused to pay a piastre, the old, the timid, and the more generous preferred poverty to such a loss.

From Project Gutenberg