Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of the notes issued as paper currency in France (1789-1796) by the revolutionary government and secured by confiscated lands.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of the notes forming the paper currency issued in France during the revolution from 1789 to 1796. The assignats were based on the security of the confiscated church lands, and afterward of all the national domains and other property. They were issued to the amount of over forty-five billion francs, and before they were withdrawn deteriorated to less than one three-hundredth of their face value.
- n. In French law, the assignment of an annuity on an estate, by which the annuity is based on the security of the latter: now little used.
Wiktionary
- n. historical A banknote used during the French Revolution, on the security of state land.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One of the notes, bills, or bonds, issued as currency by the revolutionary government of France (1790-1796), and based on the security of the lands of the church and of nobles which had been appropriated by the state.
Etymologies
- From French assignat. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Latin assignātus, past participle of assignāre, to assign; see assign. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Ipse autem assignat vbi maneant duces: millenarij centenarijs.”
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
“Causam huius assignat Cardanus, quod hydromel vetustate transeat in vinum.”
“While still a few steps from the officer she unfolded the kerchief and took out of it a white twenty-five-ruble assignat and hastily handed it to him.”
“I now possessed nothing in the world but an assignat of five hundred francs.”
“You would scarcely imagine that this copper is deemed worthy to be hoarded; yet such is the people's aversion from the paper, and such their mistrust of the government, that not an housewife will part with one of these pieces while she has an assignat in her possession; and those who are rich enough to keep a few livres by them, amass and bury this copper treasure with the utmost solicitude and secresy.”
“The people who receive what they earn in a currency they hold in contempt, are more anxious to spend than to save; and those who formerly hoarded six liards or twelve sols pieces with great care, would think it folly to hoard an assignat, whatever its nominal value.”
“It is painful to relate, that this powerful writer, and good man, who narrowly escaped the guillotine, expired in a garret, in extreme poverty, at the age of eighty-four; the only property he left being one assignat of fifty livres, worth not threepence in ready money.”
“Napoleon had nothing remaining, but an assignat of one hundred sous, his pay being in arrear.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847
“The public accepted them atthe outset, but they multiplied so under the Directory and the Convention, which issued 45,000,000,000 francs in this form (£1,800,000,000 sterling), that an assignat of 100 livres was finally worth only a few halfpence.”
“When the peasant first brings his corn to market, the magistrate in the towns obliges him to take the assignat at par; when he goes to the shop with his money, he finds it seven per cent. the worse for crossing the way.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assignat’.
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Les Misérables
A selection of words from the epic by Victor Hugo
perquisites, dispensations, execrate, spikenard, fireplaace, effeminate foppery, delaine, hoarfrost, lackadaisicalness, ort, geldings, milch and 103 more...
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An odd menagerie
Some of the creatures found in the Octopus's Garden.
vamoose, snowcat, moscow, firefox, jailbird, sawhorse, bumblepuppy, shoofly, hangdog, megabuck, engraven, brickbat and 49 more...
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