piquant

adj

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

1. Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe.
2. Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.

   “Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […]”

   “He looked after her as she retreated, with a fondness which was rendered more piquant, as it were, by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it.”

3. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.

   “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.”

   “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 […]”

4. Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.