Etymograph

English

pique

Pique comes from French piquer ‘to prick, sting’, and goes back to Middle French piquer.

  1. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600piquer‘to prick, sting’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘to prick, sting’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1592pique

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600piquer‘to prick, sting’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘to prick, sting’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1592pique

Earliest quotation: 1592, Thomas Nashe, The Foure Letters Confuted: “Tuſh! tuſh! you take the grave peake uppon you…”

Linked words

through French piquer ‘to prick, sting’

picket, picot, piqué, 6 more

Another origin of pique

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pikjazuncertain
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*pikkuncertain
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*pīccus‘sharp point, peak’reconstructed
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentpic‘woodpecker’
  5. Englishtodaypique

The noun is borrowed from French pic, Middle French pic (‘pique in the game of piquet; pike (tool)’), picq (‘game of piquet’), from Vulgar Latin *pīccus (‘sharp point, peak; pike, spike’), possibly from Frankish *pikk, *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pikjaz, *pīkaz (‘sharp point, peak; pickaxe; pike’); further etymology unknown.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. The verb is either derived from the noun (though the latter is attested in print later), or borrowed from French pic.

Another origin of pique

  1. Quechuamodernpiki‘flea’
  2. Spanishc. 1500–presentpique
  3. Englishtodaysame form

Another origin of pique

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bew-uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pikōnąuncertain
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*pikkōnuncertain
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400piquer‘to pierce with the tip of a sword’uncertain
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600picquer‘to sting’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentpiquer‘to prick, sting’
  7. French, derivedc. 1600–presentpiqué‘(noun) ribbed fabric’noun use of past participle of piquer
  8. Englishtodaypique

A variant of piqué, borrowed from French piqué (‘(noun) ribbed fabric; (ballet) step on to the point of the leading foot without bending the knee; (adjective) backstitched; (cooking) larded’), Middle French piqué (‘quilted’), a noun use of the past participle of piquer (‘to prick, sting; to decorate with stitches; to quilt; to stitch (fabric) together; to lard (meat)’); see further at etymology 1.

Today it means

verb To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle French piquer / pique

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