piquant

English

Alternative forms

• piquante

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Doublet of picong. Related to pike.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːkənt/, /ˈpiːˌkɑːnt/, /piːˈkɑːnt/, /ˈpiːkwənt/
• Rhymes: -iːkənt, -ɑːnt
• Hyphenation: pi‧quant

Adjective

piquant (comparative more piquant, superlative most piquant)

1. (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe.
2. Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.
   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, , published 1792, →OCLC:

     Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […]

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 55, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He looked after her as she retreated, with a fondness which was rendered more piquant, as it were, by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it.

3. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.
   • 2000, Lynn Bedford Hall, The Best of Cooking in South Africa, 2nd edition, Cape Town: Struik Publishers, →ISBN, page 103:

     Pork Chops with Apple and Port These chops are baked in a piquant sauce containing fruit, honey, cinnamon, lemon and port, all of which reduces to a spicy syrup.

   • 2005, Clifford A. Wright, Some Like it Hot: Spicy Favorites from the World's Hot Zones, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 170:

     Elsewhere in South America, excepting Bahia in Brazil, one does not encounter piquant cuisine, although one may stumble on a piquant dish now and then […]

   • 2009, Sara Engram with Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe, The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 9:

     French charcuterie relies on cloves in the quatre épices, or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages and piquant marinades.

4. Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.

Derived terms

• piquancy

Translations

French

Etymology

Present participle of piquer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.kɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

piquant (feminine piquante, masculine plural piquants, feminine plural piquantes)

1. spiky, spiny
2. piquant, pungent, spicy-hot (of food)

   Synonym: épicé

3. cold; ice-cold

   Synonyms: glacé, froid

   froid piquant ― freezing cold

   vent piquant ― ice-cold wind

4. scathing (of humor, a joke, etc.)
5. (usually of a person) attractive

Participle

piquant

1. present participle of piquer

Further reading

• “piquant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Middle French

Verb

piquant (feminine singular piquante, masculine plural piquans, feminine plural piquantes)

1. present participle of piquer
2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of piquer

Adjective

piquant m (feminine singular piquante, masculine plural piquans, feminine plural piquantes)

1. Alternative form of picquant