sequin

Borrowed from French sequin, from Italian zecchino, from zecca (“mint”), from Arabic سِكَّة‎ (sikka, “die for coining, coin”). Doublet of zecchin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiː.kwɪn/

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sequin (plural sequins)

1. (now historical) Any of various small gold coins minted in Italy and Turkey.

   Synonym: zecchin

   • 1816, William Beckford, Vathek, Oxford 2013, p. 10:

     ‘Let him receive as many robes of honour and thousands of sequins of gold as he hath spoken words.’

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134:

     English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pices stamped with what looked like wisps of string or its of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to ware them round your neck - nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection...

2. (fashion) A sparkling spangle used for the decoration of ornate clothing.

   Synonym: paillette

   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter CVII, in Of Human Bondage:

     His ideas of music-hall costumes had never gone beyond short skirts, a swirl of lace, and glittering sequins; but Miss Antonia had expressed herself on that subject in no uncertain terms.

• sequin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sequin in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Quines, quines, sinque

From Italian zecchino, from zecca (“mint”), from Arabic سِكَّة‎ (sikka, “die for coining, coin”).

• IPA^(key): /sə.kɛ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

sequin m (plural sequins)

1. (money) zecchin, sequin
2. sequin

   Synonym: paillette

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

• enquis, équins, niques, niqués