piquant
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). 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.]
- 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 2004, p. 86:
- Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […].
- 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 2004, p. 86:
- 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.
Derived terms
Quotations
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:piquant.
Translations
engaging; charming
|
favorably stimulating to the palate
|
causing hurt feelings
French
Etymology
Present participle of piquer.
Pronunciation
Adjective
piquant (feminine piquante, masculine plural piquants, feminine plural piquantes)
- Spiky, spiny.
- Of food: piquant, spicy.
- Cold; ice-cold.
- Of humor, a joke, etc.: scathing.
- (usually of a person) attractive.
Verb
piquant
Further reading
- “piquant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
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
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms with audio links
- English 2-syllable words
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- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Taste
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
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- French present participles
- Middle French non-lemma forms
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