Piques

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /piːks/

Definitions

1. Causes interest or curiosity to arise ; provokes feelings of annoyance or resentment
2. Sparks someone's curiosity or attention ; irritates or offends someone to create displeasure
3. Arouses or excites the desire to know more ; causes a person to feel upset or offended by something

Etymology: The verb "piques" is the third-person singular form of "pique", so its story is the story of that verb. It comes from French "piquer", meaning "to prick" or "to sting", and the sense of wounded feelings grew out of that physical jab. In French, "piquer" took on the figurative sense of stinging someone's pride, and English borrowed the verb with that meaning intact, so being piqued was originally like being pricked. The verb may trace back to a Vulgar Latin "pīccare", "to sting", though its exact origin is uncertain. One possibility is that it imitates the sound of a sharp poke. Another is that it comes from a Frankish root, "pikkōn", which would make "pique" a doublet of "pick", "pitch", and "peck", words that share a common ancestor and all carry the idea of striking a sharp point. The "curiosity" sense of the verb, as in something piquing your interest, developed later and is a figurative extension of the same idea: an interest that prickles the mind as a sting prickles the skin.

Synonyms: arouses, stimulates

Antonyms: dulls