picayunish

A picayune, which represented so little value that a miser was called picayunish, at the same time represented such a big value that we children felt rich when we had one tied in the corner of our handkerchief.

Social life in old New Orleans : being recollections of my girlhood, 1912

Of all the artforms, poetry now requires only the most picayunish investment of time, cash, and work, for practitioners to declare themselves competent enough to meet the requisite standards for acceptance by other peers in the field — and as a result, poetry has become the artform to which middling artisans can find themselves happily demoted after they have failed in harder fields of expertise.

Writing and Failure (Part 7) : Christian Bök : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

The general impression is that human beings never love one another because of such picayunish trivia as lead them to violent hatred.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

It seems impossible to deny an a priori fighting instinct, especially if one keeps in mind the incredibly picayunish, even silly, occasions of the most serious conflicts.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

It seems impossible to deny an a priori fighting instinct, especially if one keeps in mind the incredibly picayunish, even silly, occasions of the most serious conflicts.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

The general impression is that human beings never love one another because of such picayunish trivia as lead them to violent hatred.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

It seems impossible to deny an a priori fighting instinct, especially if one keeps in mind the incredibly picayunish, even silly, occasions of the most serious conflicts.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

The general impression is that human beings never love one another because of such picayunish trivia as lead them to violent hatred.

Conflict and The Web of Group-Affiliations Georg Simmel 1956

I think as far as the United States is concerned, and we are not the law-abiding people you are, I will admit that quickly -- the attempt would make the black markets we had during the war look picayunish.

1948, A Year for Successful Worrying 1948

There are no more umbrellas for a picayunish skeleton to raffle, no more such delicious sweets for the madame to stack into picayune piles, and, alack-a-day! no more picayunes, either.

Social life in old New Orleans : being recollections of my girlhood, 1912