Pissant.

[Dennis R. Preston]

I have the variant "pisswillager,' with a pretty general derogatory
sense - annoying, insignificant person. I'm pretty sure I had this
term in my youth (Louisville), but it was a somewhat fanciful term,
not nearly as common in my speech as 'pissant.'

dInIs

>At 3:19 PM -0400 4/4/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>>Is the term "pisswilly" familar to anyone ?
>>
>>Not to me. I find it immediately only in Spears' slang dictionary, =
>>"insignificant person".
>>
>>-- Doug Wilson
>a few cites on the web, with various meanings:
>========
>borrow a piss-willy bit of money
>
>Now quit being such a whiny piss-willy, and find a real cause to protest
>[= pissant?   LH]
>
>I also rather like "gravelly" voices, and can't stand piss-willy voices
>
>everyone's favourite elvis impersonator, Piss Willy
>
>[plus one gratuitous reference to ex-Pres. Clinton]
>=========
>On the other hand, there were quite a number of hits on "piss-elm" or
>"piss elm", mostly referring to botanical findings in the Midwest.
>
>larry

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736