piquant

English

WOTD – 26 February 2016

Alternative forms

• piquante

Etymology

Borrowed fromMiddle Frenchpiquant(“pricking, stimulating, irritating”),present participle ofpiquer,possibly fromOld Frenchpikier(“to prick, sting, nettle”).Doubletofpicong.Related topike.

Pronunciation

• Audio(US):

  (file)

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

Adjective

piquant(comparativemorepiquant,superlativemostpiquant)

1. (archaic)Causing hurt feelings;scathing,severe.[from 16th c.]
2. Stimulatingto the senses;engaging;charming.[from 17th c.]
   • 1791(date written),Mary Wollstonecraft,A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects,London:[…]J[oseph]Johnson,[…],published1792,→OCLC:

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

   • 1848November –1850December,William Makepeace Thackeray,chapter 55, inThe History of Pendennis.[…],volume(please specify |volume=I or II),London:Bradbury and Evans,[…],published1849–1850,→OCLC:

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

3. Favorablystimulatingto thepalate;pleasantlyspicy;tangy.[from 17th c.]
   • 2000,Lynn Bedford Hall,The Best of Cooking in South Africa,2nd edition, Cape Town:Struik Publishers,→ISBN,page103:

     Pork Chops with Apple and PortThese chops are baked in apiquantsauce 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,page170:

     Elsewhere in South America, excepting Bahia in Brazil, one does not encounterpiquantcuisine, although one may stumble on apiquantdish 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 thequatre épices,or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages andpiquantmarinades.

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

Derived terms

• piquancy

Translations

engaging; charming

• Afrikaans:pikant
• Italian:piccante(it)
• Portuguese:chamativo(pt)m,interessante(pt)morf

favorably stimulating to the palate

• Afrikaans:pikant
• Belarusian:піка́нтны(pikántny)
• Bengali:ঝাল(bn)(jhal)
• Bulgarian:пикантен(bg)(pikanten)
• Burmese:စပ်(my)(cap)
• Catalan:picant(ca)
• Dutch:pikant(nl)
• Estonian:pikantne
• Finnish:pikantti
• French:piquant(fr)
• Georgian:პიკანტური(ṗiḳanṭuri)
• German:pikant(de)
• Hungarian:pikáns(hu)
• Ido:pik-anta
• Italian:piccante(it),vespigno
• Japanese:Tân い(ja)(karai)
• Korean:맵다(ko)(maepda)
• Romanian:picant(ro)m
• Russian:пикантный(ru)(pikantnyj)
• Spanish:picante(es)
• Ukrainian:піка́нтний(pikántnyj)
• Welsh:sbeislyd(cy)

causing hurt feelings

French

Etymology

Present participle ofpiquer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/pi.kɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

piquant(femininepiquante,masculine pluralpiquants,feminine pluralpiquantes)

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

   Synonym:épicé

3. cold;ice-cold

   Synonyms:glacé,froid

   froidpiquant―freezingcold

   ventpiquant―ice-coldwind

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

Participle

piquant

1. presentparticipleofpiquer

Further reading

• “piquant”,inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

Middle French

Verb

piquant(feminine singularpiquante,masculine pluralpiquans,feminine pluralpiquantes)

1. presentparticipleofpiquer
2. (may be preceded byen,invariable)gerundofpiquer

Adjective

piquantm(feminine singularpiquante,masculine pluralpiquans,feminine pluralpiquantes)

1. Alternative form ofpicquant