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The verb is borrowed from Frenchpiquer(“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry; to provoke, stimulate; (reflexive) to boast about”), from Middle Frenchpiquer, picquer(“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry”), from Old Frenchpiquer(“to pierce with the tip of a sword”), from proto-Romance or Vulgar Latin*pīccare(“to sting; to strike”) or *pikkāre, and then either:
1733 (indicated as 1732), [Alexander] Pope, Of the Use of Riches, an Epistle to the Right Honourable Allen Lord Bathurst, London: J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, →OCLC, page 18:
The Dev'l was piqu'd, ſuch ſaintſhip to behold, / And long'd to tempt him like good Job of old: / But Satan novv is vviſer than of yore, / And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
2020 January 2, Richard Clinnick, “After Some Alarms, Sleeper Awakens”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 47:
I have been hugely involved in the operational side until this point, but now I can speak to operators and other businesses such as American and European companies, because we seem to have piqued interest.
[G]ood Nature may be ſetled in them [children] into a Habit, and they may take pleaſure and pique themſelves in being kind, liberal, and civil to others.
The American hunters pique themselves on their skill in shooting Racoons; which, from the extraordinary vigilance and cunning of the animals, is by no means an easy task.
She piqued herself on writing a hand in which each letter was distinguishable without any large range of conjecture, and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment, to save Mr. Casaubon’s eyes.
For I obſerve, that all vvomen of your condition are like the vvomen of the Play-houſe, ſtill Piquing at each other, vvho ſhall go the beſt Dreſt, and in the Richeſt Habits: till you vvork up one another by your high flying, as the Heron and Jerfalcon do.
1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, “A Survey of the Causes of Disputes; Fourthly, Passion”, in The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety., London: R. Norton for T. Garthwait,, →OCLC, page 373:
Men take up piques and diſpleaſures at others, and then every opinion of the diſliked perſon muſt partake of his fate, and be engaged in the quarrel: […]
1691, [Anthony Wood], “HENRY MARTEN”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690., volume II (Completing the Whole Work), London: Tho Bennet, →OCLC, column 493:
[H]e ſhew'd himself, out of ſome little pique, the moſt bitter enemy againſt the K[ing, i.e., Charles I of England] in all the Houſe [of Parliament], as well in action as ſpeech; […]
Not so Madame de Soissons, who at once divined his intentions and watched his progress, internally resolving to render him every ill office pique could suggest, or ridicule execute.
[L]ong, costly, and bloody wars had arisen upon a point of ceremony, upon a personal pique, upon a hasty word, upon some explosion of momentary caprice; […]
[T]here occurred one of the little skirmishes which it is almost impossible to avoid, when some five-and-twenty women, old and young, with all their private piques and prejudices, try to work together.
1592, Tho[mas] Nashe, “The Foure Letters Confuted”, in Strange Newes, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters and a Convoy of Verses,, London: Iohn Danter,, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Illustrations of Early English Literature (Miscellaneous Tracts; Temp. Eliz. and Jac. I), volume II, London: Privately printed, , →OCLC, page 35:
Tuſh! tuſh! you take the grave peake uppon you too much: who would think you could ſo eaſily ſhake off your olde friendes?
"'Tis because you are an indifferent person," said Lucy, with some pique, and laying a particular stress on those words, "that your judgment must justly have such weight with me.["]
"At all events," replied Francesca, "it could not be better bestowed, than as an offering, however unworthy, for his sake who is nearest and dearest to me in the world." / "I thank you for the implied compliment," returned Evelyn, in a tone of pique.
This defiance was not a fit of pique, but a matter of principle. He [Mandela's father] was asserting his traditional prerogative as a chief and was challenging the authority of the magistrate.
[Jürgen] Klopp’s team had the better balance between attack and defence and, crucially, they got lucky with the disallowed goal that brought [Pep] Guardiola to the point of spontaneous combustion at half-time. Guardiola’s fit of pique led to his banishment from the dugout and City will wonder what might have happened if they had taken a 2–0 lead into the second half.
Add long preſcription of eſtabliſh'd laws, / And picque of honour to maintain a cauſe, / And ſhame of change, and fear of future ill, / And Zeal, the blind conductor of the will; […]
Translations
enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
Flip[panta]. Hark thee, Braſs, the Game's in our hands, if we can but play the Cards. / Br[ass]. Pique and Repique, you Jade you: If the Wives will fall into a good Intelligence.
My villainous old luck ſtill follovvs me in gaming, I never throvv the Dice out of my hand, but my Gold goes after 'em: if I go to Picquet, though it be but vvith a Novice in't, he vvill picque and repicque, and Capot me tvventy times together: […]
He seemed perfectly to understand the beautiful game at which he played, but preferred, as it were on principle, the risking bold and precarious strokes to the ordinary rules of play, and neglecting the minor and better balanced chances of the game; he hazarded every thing for the chance of piqueing, repiqueing, or capotting his adversary.
A variant of piqué, borrowed from Frenchpiqué(“(noun) ribbed fabric; (ballet) step on to the point of the leading foot without bending the knee; (adjective) backstitched; (cooking) larded”), Middle Frenchpiqué(“quilted”), a noun use of the pastparticiple of piquer(“to prick, sting; to decorate with stitches; to quilt; to stitch (fabric) together; to lard (meat)”); see further at etymology 1.
1967, Ann Helen Stroup, An Investigation of the Dress of American Children from 1930 Through 1941 with Emphasis on Factors Influencing Change, page 195:
Pique and linen also accented several coats and oftentimes were both detachable and formed an overcollar covering a collar made from the coat fabric.
Etymology 5
A variant of pica, or from its etymonLate Latinpica(“disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances”), from Latinpīca(“jay; magpie”) (from the idea that magpies will eat almost anything), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European*(s)peyk-(“magpie; woodpecker”).
The World is nat'rally averse / To all the truth it sees or hears, / But swallows Non-sense and a Lie / With greediness and gluttony; / And though it have the Pique, and long, / 'Tis still for something in the wrong: […]