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peaked

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Pronunciation

  • /piːkt/, /ˈpiːkɪd/[1]

peaked1 having a peak, pointed

Etymology

The adjective meaning pointed is formed from English peak + -ed,[2][3][4] although the OED notes that the noun peak is recorded only later than the adjective, and compares the earlier piked.[2] Dictionary.com gives the late Middle English form as pekyd,[4] and Merriam-Webster takes peked as an alteration of piked;[5][6] the MED lists peked among the spellings of piked, which it derives from pike (“point, spike”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having or reaching a peak; projecting or pointed, or cut and trimmed to a point: about 1350, in the Nominale.[2][8] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1400–50,[4] and Merriam-Webster to the 14th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "pointed" was narrowed in the 17th century to mountains and hills rising into a peak (1613),[2][8] and at the end of the 18th century to pitched roofs rising to a sharp ridge (1797, in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian).[2][8] In the dialects of Lincolnshire, Worcestershire and Hampshire a peaked piece of land was a triangular one, such as the corner of a field, and in Lincolnshire trees blown out of the upright were said to be peaked.[9] The OED's first edition (1904) also recorded a two-syllable pronunciation, perhaps poetic or Scottish, as in the Scots form peakit.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1350 – having a peak; pointed.[2][8]
  • 1613 – of a mountain or hill, rising into a peak.[2][8]
  • 1797 – of a pitched roof, rising to a sharp vertex.[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having a peak; rising to or ending in a point; pointed: a peaked roof.[10][5][2]
  2. Of a cap, having a peak or visor at the front.[11]
  3. (dialect) Of a piece of land, triangular.[9]

Word family

  • nonpeaked
  • unpeaked

peaked2 sickly, wan

Etymology

The sense "sickly" is formed from English peak + -ed: it is the past participle of the dialect verb peak, to look sickly or thin, to waste away.[2][12][13][5] Etymonline dates that verb to the 1540s and thinks it perhaps comes from peak in the sense "to become pointed", the face growing sharp through wasting;[12] the OED, which records the sense from 1580, calls the verb of unknown origin and regards that link with the noun peak as probably a folk etymology,[2] and Barnhart also calls the verb of uncertain origin.[14] The connection between the two adjectives is therefore uncertain.[2][12] Etymonline adds that Middle English had a verb peken (“to move dejectedly, slink”) from the mid-15th century, but its connection is unclear too.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sharp-featured, thin and pinched, as from illness or hunger; sickly-looking: 1804, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.[2][8] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1800,[5] while Etymonline gives 1835[12] and Barnhart 1835–40.[14]

Semantic evolution

The adjective grew out of the verb peak, which from 1580 meant to flag in health and spirits, to languish or waste away;[2] Shakespeare used it in Macbeth (1605) in the pairing peak and pine,[14] and later the verb survived only in that phrase.[2] Early records of peaked are often American: Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes Haliburton's Sam Slick in England (1843), in which a lawyer looks as peeked and as forlorn as a lone loon.[15] It is usually pronounced with two syllables, unlike the "pointed" adjective,[5][2] and British English also uses peaky in the same sense.[11]

Timeline

  • 1540s – the verb peak, to look sickly, to waste away.[12]
  • 1580 – the verb peak in the OED's first record, in Tusser.[2]
  • 1605 – peak and pine, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.[14]
  • 1804 – sickly-looking, thin and pinched (Merriam-Webster 1800, Etymonline 1835).[2][5][12]
  • 1843 – spelled peeked, in Haliburton's Sam Slick in England.[15]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Looking pale, thin and unwell; sickly or wan: After a week of fever the boy looked peaked.[5][2][11]

Word family

  • peakedness
  • peakedly

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com