Crossword clues for piaster
piaster
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Piaster \Pi*as"ter\, n. [F. piastre, It. piastra a thin plate of metal, a dollar, LL. piastra, fr. L. emplastrum. See Plaster.] A silver coin of Spain and various other countries. See Peso. The Spanish piaster (commonly called peso, or peso duro) is of about the value of the American dollar. The Italian piaster, or scudo, was worth from 80 to 100 cents. The Turkish and Egyptian piasters are now worth about four and a half cents.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also piastre, 1620s, "Spanish dollar, piece of eight," also used as the name of a monetary unit and coin of Turkey (1610s, in Turkish called ghurush, but originally debased Spanish dollars), from French piastre, from Italian piastra "thin metal plate," short for impiastro "plaster," from Latin emplastrum, from Greek emplastron (see plaster). The Italian word was applied to the Spanish silver peso, later to the Turkish coin based on it. Compare shinplaster.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of piastre English)
WordNet
Usage examples of "piaster".
He had thus sent me gold and silver filigrees from Damascus, portfolios, scarfs, belts, handkerchiefs and pipes, the whole worth four or five hundred piasters.
She added that she would give me a casket full of diamonds, one of which was alone worth two thousand piasters, and that the sale of the others would place us beyond the reach of poverty for the remainder of our life.
Paxton followed him up the stairs, and he struggled with her single bag while she managed her tote bag, and when they reached her room, she gave him twenty-five piasters, and he grinned and bowed and ran away downstairs.
On the following night, she informed me that her master would sell her for two thousand piasters, that she would give me the amount, that she was yet a virgin, and that I would be pleased with my bargain.
He had thus sent me gold and silver filigrees from Damascus, portfolios, scarfs, belts, handkerchiefs and pipes, the whole worth four or five hundred piasters.
I started to take out the backsheesh I meant to give him, but he spit at me, and, crying: "Keep your piaster.