pistole
(pɪˈstəʊl)
Also 6–8 pistol(l.
[a. F. pistole the coin (c 1620 d'Aubigny Fœneste), app. shortened from pistolet: see pistolet2. The coin was not known by any corresponding name in Spain or Italy.]
A name formerly applied to certain foreign gold coins; sometimes (as in quot. 1592) synonymous with pistolet2; spec., from c 1600, given to a Spanish gold coin worth from 16s. 6d. to 18s.; also applied (after French) to the louis d'or of Louis XIII, issued in 1640, and sometimes to the Scottish twelve pound piece of William III, 1701, = {pstlg}1 English.
| 1592 Lanc. Wills II. 127 One peece of gold..to the value of vjs w{supc}{suph} is called a pistole. 1594 Nashe Christ's T. Ep. to Rdr., Great pieces of gold, such as double Pistols and Portugues. 1643 Decl. Commons, Reb. Irel. 49 Fourteene peeces of eight, and a double Pistoll. 1678 Phil. Trans. XII. 1005 Who both have commonly sold their Glasses at the rate of a Pistol (i.e. about 17 shillings and six pence) the foot. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 5 ¶5 Instead of 25 Pistoles formerly allowed to each Member. 1819 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. iii. 69 Only think of the Chancellor's sending the President a pistole to pay the postage of his letters. 1898 G. B. Rawlings Brit. Coinage 189 The last Scottish gold coins, the twelve- and six-pound pieces Scots, sometimes called pistoles and half pistoles..minted from gold imported from Africa by the Darien Co..1701. 1899 Sir J. Evans in N. & Q. 9th Ser. IV. 443/1 Quadruple pistoles..in the last century were commonly accepted in England as being of the value of 3l. 12s. |