Piqued

Filed Under March 2007, columns 

“Self-phone” is pure poetry.

Dear Word Detective: Why is my curiosity “piqued” instead of “peaked”? And is this related to the irritation form of “pique”? And finally, in modern usage, is anything else but your curiosity ever “piqued”? — Phillip Thrash.

Well, if you were writing something on the internet (MySpace personal profile, comments to some spotty blog, etc.), your curiosity might well be “peaked.” The internet has turned out to be a bottomless well (or pit, depending on one’s perspective) of creative word substitutions such as the use of “peaked” for “piqued” (which occurs, according to a Google search for “peaked * interest,” on about 185,000 web pages).

The substitution by many people of “peaked” for “piqued” is surprisingly understandable. To “pique” one’s interest means “to arouse, awake or stimulate” interest, as in “The sudden burst of trading in the previously obscure stock piqued the curiosity of the SEC.” That increase in curiosity could well be graphed as a line rising from nothing to a peak, so to substitute “peaked” would make a certain amount of sense — it’s not “right,” but it does make sense. Add to that the facts that “peaked” and “piqued” are homophones (words that sound alike), and that “peaked” is familiar to many people while “piqued” is not, and you have those 185,000 web pages.

There’s actually a term for this kind of substitution, coined in 2003 by linguist Geoffrey Pullum after his colleague Mark Liberman wrote on the linguistics blog Language Log about a writer who had substituted “egg corns” for “acorns.” An acorn does resemble a small egg, and is a seed, like corn, from which something grows, so if you’ve heard the word “acorn” but perhaps never seen it in print, “egg corn” is a logical stab at the word. Pullum suggested that this kind of semi-logical substitution be called a “eggcorn,” and there is now a growing online Eggcorn Database, where examples of the species (my favorite is “wind turban”) are being collected and cataloged.

The case of “peaked” as an eggcorn for “piqued” is especially interesting because the words are cousins. “Pique,” originally meaning “to express resentment” or “to irritate or offend,” first appeared in English in the 17th century, derived from the French “piquer,” meaning “to anger or annoy.” The same root, in the sense of “to pierce or sting” also gave us the English “pike” (spear or pointed stick), of which “peak” (the pointed top of something) is a 16th century variant.

“Pique” acquired its modern sense of “to provoke or arouse” in the 17th century, and while “interest” or “curiosity” are most often “piqued,” one can also “pique” jealousy, anger and similar emotions.

 

 

Comments

4 Responses to “Piqued”

  1. Deep Candiru on March 2nd, 2007 4:41 pm

    A similar substitution occurs with “wet” vs. “whet,” as in “whetstone” and “whet one’s appetite” (although the Eggcorn Database only mentions the latter).

  2. Diablevert on March 6th, 2007 12:25 am

    I see no reason to call perfectly good mondegreens eggcorns.

  3. CMT on March 7th, 2007 7:00 pm

    ….and where does that leave Pike’s Peak?

  4. ginjerly on April 18th, 2007 7:12 am

    Thank you for this concise explanation! During the past several weeks, I have sent out dozens of cover letters in which I used the word piqued. Then, early this morning, I awoke with heart palpitation when I the thought ran across my mind that I had either misspelled or misused the word. In a panic, I went to dictionary.com where my fear became emboldened. Then, I Googled “meaning piqued” and examined many webpages. I was almost convinced that I had, in fact, angered prospective employers with my highlights of qualifications. Then I found you. Whew! One hour later, I am truly piqued — or is that peaked?

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