piquer

French

Etymology

From Middle French picquer, from Old French piquer (“to pierce with the tip of a sword”) (cf. also pikier), from proto-Romance or Vulgar Latin *pīccare (“to sting, strike”) or *pikkāre (compare Occitan, Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish picar), itself either from an onomatopoetic root *pikk- (cf. also Latin picus, whence French pic), or alternatively, from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikōną, *pukaną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *beu-, *bu- (“to make a dull sound”). Cognate with , pician (“to pick, pluck”), Old Norse pikka (“to prick, peck”), (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Dutch and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Low German picken (“to pick, peck, pierce”), Middle High German puchen (“to knock, defy, plunder”). More at pick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ke/

• audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: piquai, piqué, piquée, piquées, piqués, piquez

Verb

piquer

1. to prick (pierce with a prick)
2. to sting (feel a stinging pain)
3. (colloquial) to nick, pinch, steal
4. (reflexive) to pride oneself on; to like to think that one can do (+ de)
5. (textiles, couture) to stitch together

Conjugation

Conjugation of piquer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	piquer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	piquant /pi.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		piqué /pi.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pique /pik/	piques /pik/	pique /pik/	piquons /pi.kɔ̃/	piquez /pi.ke/	piquent /pik/
	imperfect	piquais /pi.kɛ/	piquais /pi.kɛ/	piquait /pi.kɛ/	piquions /pi.kjɔ̃/	piquiez /pi.kje/	piquaient /pi.kɛ/
	past historic2	piquai /pi.ke/	piquas /pi.ka/	piqua /pi.ka/	piquâmes /pi.kam/	piquâtes /pi.kat/	piquèrent /pi.kɛʁ/
	future	piquerai /pi.kʁe/	piqueras /pi.kʁa/	piquera /pi.kʁa/	piquerons /pi.kʁɔ̃/	piquerez /pi.kʁe/	piqueront /pi.kʁɔ̃/
	conditional	piquerais /pi.kʁɛ/	piquerais /pi.kʁɛ/	piquerait /pi.kʁɛ/	piquerions /pi.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	piqueriez /pi.kə.ʁje/	piqueraient /pi.kʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	pique /pik/	piques /pik/	pique /pik/	piquions /pi.kjɔ̃/	piquiez /pi.kje/	piquent /pik/
	imperfect2	piquasse /pi.kas/	piquasses /pi.kas/	piquât /pi.ka/	piquassions /pi.ka.sjɔ̃/	piquassiez /pi.ka.sje/	piquassent /pi.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pique /pik/	—	piquons /pi.kɔ̃/	piquez /pi.ke/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• piqûre, piqure
• repiquer

 

Descendants

• → English: pique
• → German: pikieren
• → Italian: piccarsi

Further reading

• “piquer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• piqure, piqûre