Piquant

Piquant (pronounced pee-kuhnt, pee-kahnt or pee-kahnt)

(1) Agreeably pungent or sharp in taste or flavor; pleasantly biting or tart.

(2) Agreeably lively or stimulating to the mind; interesting or attractive (someone who may attract “a piquant glance”).

(3) Of an interestingly provocative or lively character (someone sometimes described as “a piquant wit”.

(4) In food, producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot (sometimes applied figuratively (of remarks, concepts et al).

(5) Sharp or stinging, hurtful of one’s feelings (archaic).

1520s: From the Middle French piquant (stimulating, irritating (literally “pricking”)), present participle of piquer (to prick; sting, nettle) which replaced pickante from the Italian piccante.  The ultimate source in French may have been the Old French pikier (to prick, sting, nettle).  The original sense in the 1520s was “something said that was scathing, sharp or stinging, hurting one’s feelings”, a use now obsolete.  By the 1640s the word was being used of an “agreeable pungency or sharpness of taste or flavor”, that by the 1690s extending to someone or something “smart, lively or racy in nature” which, under poetic influence, was from the early seventeenth century generalized to mean “stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming” and in parallel with this the foodies used it to mean “favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy”.  That latter use still exists although some (especially in commerce) use piquant as a synonym merely for “very hot or spicy”; the comparative is “more piquant”, the superlative “most piquant”.    Piquant is an adjective, piquantness & piquancy are nouns and piquantly is an adverb; the noun plural is piquancies.

Piquant glances: Lindsay Lohan & Bader Shammas (b 1987).

The noun piquancy (created by appending the abstract noun suffix -cy) has endured while the companion noun piquantness is now rare.  The synonyms (applied variously to food, drink, ideas, music, literature, people etc) include spicy, pungent, poignant, racy, savory, peppery, tangy, zesty, interesting, lively, provocative, sharp, snappy, sparkling, spirited, stimulating, tart, intriguing & zestful while the most common antonyms seem to be insipid, bland & vapid.  The most neglected synonym is probably sapid (tasty, flavorsome or savory), from the Latin sapidus (savoury, delicious, tasty (and in the Late Latin “prudent, wise”) the construct being sap(iō) (to taste) +‎ -idus (the suffix used to form adjectives in the sense of “tending to”), from the Proto-Italic -iðos, from the primitive Indo-European -dhos, a thematized formation from dheh- (to put, place).  The attraction of reviving “sapid” is one can compliment another on their sapidity or tell them how admirable is their sapidness; as a pick-up line in a bar, it would have some novelty and sapid is an anagram of “iPads” which may appeal to some.

Hellfire Piquant Herbal Gin.

The Hellfire Distillery is located at Boomer Bay, on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia’s island state.  Despite the modern association of the word, the name of the place has nothing to do with the post-war “baby boom” (“boomer” (as an ellipsis of “baby boomer”) now an often disparaging term applied to those born between 1946-1964).  The source of the name is obscure but the most supported theory is as a reference to the large waves which crash ashore, the geography of the place lending a acoustic quality which amplifies the sound under certain climatic conditions.  “Boomer” is also old Australian slang for heavy waves which produce the loud “crashing” sounds.  There’s less support for the notion the name could be tied to the kangaroo; that the marsupial also is in some places known by the slang “boomer”, this is thought a coincidence.  The Hellfire Distillery provided the recipe for a Sloe gin (a gin made from blackthorn fruits) slushie:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, shredded
250 grams fresh strawberries
¼ cup sugar syrup
500 grams watermelon, cubed and frozen
¼ cup Hellfire's Sloe Gin

Instructions

(1) Place strawberries, mint and sugar syrup in a blender; blitz until really smooth.
(2) Strain to remove seeds and pour the mixture into ice cube moulds; then freeze.
(3) In blender, add strawberry ice cubes, watermelon and gin; blend until smooth and slushy.
(4) Spoon into glasses and garnish with extra mint leaves (if desired).

The word “piquant” is widely used in the products of the industrial food industry.  It’s an exotic or gentrified way of denoting something as “pungent”, “hot” or “spicy”.