quattien.
/ˈkwɒti/, U.S. /ˈkwɑdi/, Caribbean English /ˈkwati/ Caribbean.
A small silver coin worth a quarter of six old pence (now historical); the amount represented by this; (hence) a small or insignificant amount of money.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > foreign coins > [noun] > Caribbean coins
hog moneyc1625
bit1683
macaroni1808
quattie1859
1859 A. Trollope West Indies ii. 20 ‘And now de two quatties,’ he said. I knew nothing of quatties then, but I gave him the sixpence.
1873 C. J. G. Rampini Lett. from Jamaica ix. 94 ‘Quattie’, a penny-half-penny—the ‘quarter’ of sixpence.
1905 P. C. Smith Chim-chim 15 Chim-chim come to town to get quattie peas an' rice.
1933 C. McKay Banana Bottom iii. 40 Dispensing with quatties and tups, bits, shillings and florins, they exchanged chickens and ducks.
1971 Jamaican Weekly Gleaner 3 Nov. 25/2 Pound' wort' a fret nebber pay quattie wort' a debt.
1975 New Yorker 12 May 37/1 He put every penny, every quattie of what we had into a small herd and a prize black bull.
1999 M. Cezair-Thompson True Hist. Paradise xviii. 79 I sell penny wort' a cheese, quarter-pack a cigarette, quattie wort' a salt fish.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1859