pique-devant

English

Portrait of King Charles I of England with a pique-devant

Alternative forms

• pickadevant, pick-a-devant, pickadevaunt, pickdevant, pickedevant, pickerdevant, pike devant, pique de vant

Etymology

Probably coined in England, from French pique (“pike, spade (cards)”) or piquer (“to prick”) + devant (“in front”)

Noun

pique-devant (plural pique-devants)

1. (obsolete, historical) A small beard trimmed to a sharp point. [16th–17th c.]
   • 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicle‎^[2], London: Henry Denham, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 172:

     Neither will I meddle with our varietie of beards, of which some are shauen from the chin like those of Turks, not a few cut short like to the beard of marques Otto, some made round like a rubbing brush, other with a pique de vant (O fine fashion!) or now and then suffered to grow long, the barbers being growen to be so cunning in this behalfe as the tailors.

   • 1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden‎^[3], London: John Danter:

     twice double his Patrimonie hath he spent in carefull cherishing & preseruing his pickerdeuant

   • 1604, Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus‎^[4], London: Thomas Bushell:

     Wag[ner]. Sirra boy, come hither.
     Clo[wn]. How, boy? swowns boy, I hope you haue séene many boyes with such pickadevaunts as I haue.

   • 1638, Richard Baker, transl., New Epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac […] Being the second and third volumes‎^[5], London: Fra. Eglesfield, John Crooke, and Rich. Serger, Letter 51, p. 108:

     I have seene the Cavalier you have so often spoken of, and I thinke you judge verie rightlie of him. Hee consists wholly of a Pickedevant [in the French original: la pointe de sa barbe], and two Mustachoes: and therefore utterly to defeate him, there needes but three clippes of a paire of Cizers.

   • 1688, Randle Holme III, The Academy of Armory‎^[6], Chester, Book 2, p. 389:

     In the Sinister Chief is set another sort of a full Face with a sharp pointed Beard, and is termed in Blazon, a Mans face with a Pick-a-devant, (or sharp pointed) Beard.

Synonyms

• bodkin beard, stiletto