piquant

English

Etymology

Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), from Old French piquer (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Related to pike.

Adjective

piquant (comparative more piquant, superlative most piquant)

1. Engaging; charming.
2. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; stimulating.
   • 2000, Lynn Bedford Hall, Best of Cooking in South Africa (page 2000)

     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

     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 Engra, Katie Luber, Kimberly Toqe, The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices (page 9)

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

3. (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing.

Translations

Engaging; charming

Italian: piccante (it)

Portuguese: chamativo (pt) m., interessante (pt) m. and f.

Favorably stimulating to the palate

Dutch: pikant (nl) Finnish: pikantti (fi) German: pikant (de)

Hungarian: pikáns (hu) Italian: piccante (it)

Causing hurt feelings

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Translations to be checked

Ido: pika

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French

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /pi.kɑ̃/, SAMPA: /pi.kA~/

Adjective

piquant m. (f. piquante, m. plural piquants, f. plural piquantes)

1. piquant