assignat

From French assignat.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈasɪɡnat/, /asɪˈnja/

assignat (plural assignats)

1. (now historical) A banknote used during the French Revolution, on the security of state land. [from 18th c.]
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford 2009, p. 196:

     If the landed man wishes to mortgage, he falls the value of his land, and raises the value of assignats.

   • 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview 2001, p. 387:

     [O]n her request for money, I took out a parcel of assignats I had in my pocket.

   • 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society 2010, p. 25:

     He was in favour of a national bank; he was strongly opposed to the reckless issue of assignats and spoke against it in the Assembly.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 508:

     The continuing depreciation of the assignat was worsening problems: in November and December, the currency's cash return dipped below 1 per cent of its face value, bringing a comic aspect to many exchanges and inducing street beggars to decline alms in paper form.

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /ə.siɡˈnat/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a.siɡˈnat/
• Rhymes: -at

assignat m (feminine assignada, masculine plural assignats, feminine plural assignades)

1. past participle of assignar

From assign(er) +‎ -at.

• IPA^(key): /a.si.ɲa/

• Audio

  (file)

assignat m (plural assignats)

1. (historical) assignat

• “assignat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

assignat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of assignō