pique

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Middle French pique (“quarrel, resentment; a prick, sting”),^[2][3][4][5] from the verb piquer (“to prick, pierce, sting”).^[2][3][4][6] The verb is borrowed from French piquer (“to anger, annoy; to prick, sting”), which has the sense of angering from 1458 in Middle French.^[2][5][3] AHD, Dictionary.com and Hoad take the French verb from Vulgar Latin *piccō (“to prick”),^[7][8][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary calls it ultimately imitative.^[7] Etymonline, following Barnhart, connects it instead with Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”) and the family of pike, perhaps of Germanic or Celtic origin.^[5][4] The OED compares Old Occitan pica (“quarrel, discord”), recorded in 1303, and the loans Dutch pik, German Pik and Swedish pik.^[2] Early English spellings include pyke, peake and picke; the spelling pique is first recorded in 1653.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A quarrel or ill feeling between people: in a letter of Thomas Cromwell of 1532.^[2][4][3] Etymonline says the 1530s,^[5] and Dictionary.com 1525–35.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In English the noun has only the figurative senses, and at first it named a mutual state, a quarrel or animosity between parties, a use Merriam-Webster Unabridged now marks as archaic.^[2][3] The one-sided sense, anger at a slight to one's pride, is recorded from 1551 in the revised OED;^[2] Barnhart's first record is Nashe in 1592.^[4] Today it is heard mostly in the phrase fit of pique.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines the noun as ill will, an offence taken, petty malevolence.^[9] The verb came a century after the noun and began with the idea of irritating or offending.^[2][4] It then softened to stimulating someone to action by jealousy, and so to arousing a feeling, above all curiosity or interest.^[5][2] The reflexive to pique oneself on follows French se piquer, to take pride in, recorded from 1623;^[2] Weekley guessed that it comes from a bird pecking and preening its feathers.^[10]

Timeline

• 1532 – noun, a quarrel, ill feeling between people.^[2][4][3]
• 1551 – noun, anger or resentment from a slight to one's pride.^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1592.^[4]
• 1664 – verb, intransitive, to show resentment, to lose one's temper (rare, now obsolete).^[2]
• 1671 – verb, to wound the pride of, to irritate or offend.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1669.^[3]
• 1684 – verb, reflexive, to take pride in or congratulate oneself on something.^[2]
• 1687 – noun, a point of honour (obsolete by 1739).^[2]
• 1697 – verb, to stimulate a person to action, or to arouse a feeling such as curiosity.^[2] Etymonline dates this softened meaning to the 1690s.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A feeling of resentment or irritation at a slight to one's pride: in a fit of pique.^[11][3][2]
2. (archaic) Mutual animosity; a state of strife between people.^[3][2][12]

Verb

1. To arouse or stimulate a feeling, especially curiosity or interest: The odd title piqued his interest.^[11][13][2]
2. To wound the pride of; to irritate or nettle.^[11][3][2]
3. To provoke someone to action by wounding pride or stirring jealousy.^[3][2][12]
4. (archaic) To pride or congratulate oneself on something, used reflexively.^[13][11][2]

Related words

• piquet
• pike
• pick
• piquant
• piqué
• peak
• peek

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: pique is a quick and fleeting feeling of injured self-respect or self-conceit, while umbrage is offence at being slighted, indefinite in strength and permanence.^[5] In the card game piquet, a pique is the winning of thirty points before the opponent scores, recorded from 1668 and taken from French pic, with a verb recorded from 1659.^[2][3][12] A pique is also the chigger, recorded from 1748 and taken from Spanish pique, from Quechua piki.^[2][3][12] Dictionary.com warns against confusing the word with peak, peek and piqué.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b 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 u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press