piquant

Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Related to pike.

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• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːkənt/, /ˈpiːˌkɑːnt/, /piːˈkɑːnt/
• Hyphenation: pi‧quant

piquant (comparative more piquant, superlative most piquant)

1. Engaging; charming.
2. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; stimulating.
   • 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; Katie Luber; 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.

3. (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing.

• piquancy

• For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:piquant.

Present participle of piquer.

• IPA^(key): /pi.kɑ̃/

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

1. Spiky, spiny.
2. Of food: piquant, spicy.
3. Cold; ice-cold.
4. Of humor, a joke, etc.: scathing.
5. (usually of a person) attractive.

piquant

1. present participle of piquer

• “piquant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

piquant (plural piquans)

1. present participle of piquer

piquant m (feminine singular piquante, masculine plural piquans, feminine plural piquantes)

1. Alternative form of picquant