piquant

Definition

Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe.

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.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "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."