piquant
/ˈpiːkənt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.23 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.
adj
Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.
Example Sentences
- "Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […]"
- "He looked after her as she retreated, with a fondness which was rendered more piquant, as it were, by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it."
- "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."
- "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 […]"
- "French charcuterie relies on cloves in the quatre épices, or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages and piquant marinades."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Doublet of picong. Related to pike.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: piquant, pikier