piquant

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpiː.kənt/, /ˈpiː.ˌkɑːnt/, /piː.ˈkɑːnt/

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)
• Korean: 맵다 (ko) (maepda)
• Spanish: picante (es)

Causing hurt feelings

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: pika

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French

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /pi.kɑ̃/, X-SAMPA: /pi.kA~/

Adjective

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

1. piquant