piquant
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
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
Adjective
piquant (comparative more piquant, superlative most piquant)
- (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe. [from 16th c.]
- Stimulating to 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, […], 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. […], volume (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.
- Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy. [from 17th c.]
- 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.
- Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.
Derived terms
Translations
engaging; charming
favorably stimulating to the palate
|
causing hurt feelings
Etymology
Present participle of piquer.
Pronunciation
Adjective
piquant (feminine piquante, masculine plural piquants, feminine plural piquantes)
Participle
piquant
Further reading
- “piquant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Verb
piquant (feminine singular piquante, masculine plural piquans, feminine plural piquantes)
Adjective
piquant m (feminine singular piquante, masculine plural piquans, feminine plural piquantes)
- Alternative form of picquant
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