Crossword clues for pistole
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pistole \Pis*tole"\, n. [F., probably a name given in jest in France to a Spanish coin. Cf. Pistol.] The name of certain gold coins of various values formerly coined in some countries of Europe. In Spain it was equivalent to a quarter doubloon, or about $3.90, and in Germany and Italy nearly the same. There was an old Italian pistole worth about $5.40.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
former Spanish coin (not called that in Spanish), 1590s, from French pistole, from Italian piastola, diminutive of piastra "plate or leaf of metal" (see piaster). Compare earlier pistolet (1550s) "foreign coin," which OED says is from French pistolet "short firearm" (see pistol) and so called for being smaller and thinner than other coins.
Wiktionary
n. (context now historical English) A Spanish gold double-escudo coin of the mid-sixteenth century, or any of various gold coins derived from or based on this. (from 16th c.)
Wikipedia
Pistole is the French name given to a Spanish gold coin in use in 1537; it was a double escudo, the gold unit. The name was also given to the Louis d'Or of Louis XIII of France, and to other European gold coins of about the value of the Spanish coin. One pistole was worth approximately ten livres or three écus, but higher figures are also seen.
The coin appears repeatedly in Dumas' fiction. He has his character state, in The Three Musketeers set in the 1620s, that one hundred pistoles were worth a thousand livres tournois when Athos bargains for the horse he takes to the battle of La Rochelle.
A coin with this name was minted in Scotland in 1701, under William II, with a weight of 106 grains (6.84g ca.) and a value of 12 scottish pounds.
The coin gave its name to the town of Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, where according to local legend an explorer lost a goblet worth three pistoles in the river.
Usage examples of "pistole".
The father reserved to himself a revenue of one hundred thousand pistoles per annum, retired to the castle of Chamberry, and espoused the countess dowager of St.
Like all Russian pistols, what the East Germans call the Pistole M is a crudely designed piece of machinery with a simple blowback system and a butt angle like a letter L, but its Soviet designers gave it a legendary reliability which in tight corners makes up for all other shortcomings.
Then a pair of armored and wheeled tortugaswhich siege devices had apparently been rafted down the river unseen by any sentries on the dark, drizzly nighthad broken down a stretch of the already fire-weakened palisades and entered the fortaleza, and the armed whites and indios contained in them had opened fire with light arquebuses, pistoles, probably some swivel guns, and quite possibly one or two old-fashioned multi-barreled volley guns.
However, I amused myself at a small bank at faro, which was held at a coffee-house, and at which Rosalie, whose play I directed, won a score of Piedmontese pistoles.
In a quarter of an hour I found that I was the better player, but she had such luck that at the end of the game I had lost twenty pistoles, which I paid on the spot.
Den de masters of de dawgs dey get angry, and fire four tousand pistole at de four tousand dawgs, and make my bed shake wid the trembling of mine vrow.
He put down twentyfive Piedmontese pistoles, and some silver money to amuse the ladies --altogether it amounted nearly to forty louis.
He has written me a letter, in which he threatens to blow out his brains to-day if I will not lend him a hundred pistoles.
I have done nothing to him directly, but by an inexcusable act of stupidity I have wounded his dear friend Manucci in his tenderest part. With the most innocent intentions I reposed my confidence in a cowardly fellow, who sold it to Manucci for a hundred pistoles.
With the most innocent intentions I reposed my confidence in a cowardly fellow, who sold it to Manucci for a hundred pistoles.
Two days earlier in Calais, in a tavern in the basse ville where he normally received information about his consignments of brandy, a man named Fontenay approached him, paid half of an agreed sum – ten gold pistoles – and gave him patient instructions.
Caricai i due moschetti con due pallottole e altri cinque o sei pallini di minor calibro, suppergiù come quelli che usavo per le pistole, e caricai il fucile con una manciata scarsa di pallini di calibro maggiore, di quelli che usavo per sparare alla selvaggina.
As his scalpel worked delicately down towards the keel of the breastbone, a spatula easing the muscles aside, he was perfectly deaf to the ring of coins and the powerful voices on the other side of the bulkhead - Captain Aubrey, the two oldest forecastle hands (rather hard of hearing), and Mr Adams telling over the treasure of the Franklin, converting it into Spanish dollars and reckoning the shares - and to those on the quarterdeck: an extraordinary number of hands had found tasks that kept them within earshot of the open companion, and they kept up a murmured commentary upon the amounts, proven-ence and rates of exchange of the coins handled below, showing a wonderful grasp of the European and American system, switching from Dutch rixdollars to Hanover ducats with as much ease as from Barcelona pistoles to Portuguese joes, Venice sequins or Jamaica guineas.