One of my friends had been sick, and someone said she was still looking "peaked." It made me wonder how that definition evolved and why the pronunciation differs from the meaning of "pointed."

The few times I remember hearing my mother use "peaked," she pronounced it with two syllables.

I never heard any other person say the word.

peek-ed. "Yesterday I thought you were getting over it but today you look peek-ed again."

BTW, one of the most frequent mis-spellings I have seen on the Internet is "piqued," as in "It peaked [sic] my curiosity."

I've heard it here although more common is "peaky".

The Online Etymology Dictionary lists a pique (n.) with the meaning 'fit of ill feeling', from 1532, from the MFr pique 'prick, sting, irritation'. Our word pike in the spear-sense is from the same root (though some connect it with OFr pic 'woodpecker', and the Anglo-Norman name of Speak(s)). When I first saw peakèd above, I thought of the monosyllabic peaked as in peaked hat, itself a calque or loan translation of Hungarian csákó süveg, usually shortened to csákó which also yielded English shako.

What piqued my interest was the spelling of misspelling with a hyphen, which I had never seen before. Is this a common, older spelling, such as the hyphenated base-ball of yore?

[Edited typo.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Thanks, Zmj, for that etymology.

Actually, I've heard "peaked" (and, yes, with 2 syllables) fairly frequently. We wouldn't say "peaky," though, Bob.

Yes, I agree that "piqued my curiosity" is often spelled wrong. Another common mistake that occurs (and occurred when our organization rolled out our new Web site and sent notices around the country with the misspelling) is "sneak peak." Even when you look on Google, while "sneak peek" has more cites, it doesn't have that many more (it's about 1,200,000 to 1,700,000).

Edited to remove errors.

~~~~~ jt

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

"We all make mis-steaks, don't we ?"

Nice to know ...

The OED Online attests the "pointed" meaning of peaked from c1350, which came from piked (1269). A second meaning, " Sharp-featured, thin, pinched, as from illness or undernourishment; sickly looking," dates from 1809. It only gives the single-syllable pronunciation, but notes that N.E.D. (1904) [whoever that is], gives a two-syllable pronunciation, "perh. representing poetic or Scottish usage." The American dictionaries I've looked at generally pronounce the "pointed" peak as one syllable and the "sickly" peak as two syllables.

Peaked, "sickly," came from peaking: "Sickly, feeble, thin; pining, wasting" (1611), which is still used regionally in parts of England and the U.S. (Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. s.v. records this sense as still in use in Connecticut in 1941). Peaky, "Sickly; feeble, puny; showing signs of poor health, fatigue, or undernourishment," dates from 1821; hence, peakyish, "slightly unwell" (1853 - only one citation). Peakish, "Somewhat sickly; pinched, unhealthy," is attested from 1836. Peakiness (1922) meant "The state or condition of being peaky."

Peaking had another, now obsolete meaning: " Sneaking, skulking; mean-spirited" (1595). It was often used with the connotation of prying; thus, it may have been a mispelling of peeking.

Peakish has another meaning, too: "Slothful, spiritless; stupid, ignorant; (sometimes more generally) contemptible" (1519). That peakish came from an obsolete meaning of peak: "A silly or foolish person; a dolt, a fool. Also peak-hoddy, -noddy (1509).

And Peakish refers to the Peak District.

Tinman

So is that related to Zmj's 1532 pique?

I've been watching my Wallace and Grommit, and I wonder if "peckish" (mildly hungry or irritable) also comes from the same root?

We use the two syllable pronunciation for "peaked" and generally mean it to be ill or pale, or sometimes just tired out.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
What piqued my interest was the spelling of misspelling with a hyphen, which I had never seen before. Is this a common, older spelling, such as the hyphenated base-ball of yore?

Indeed it is. OED gives hyphen-showing cites for

• mis-spell in 1655, 1748, 1775, 1846, 1863, 1895 (as a noun) and 1915,
• mis-spelling (noun) in 1898, and
• mis-spelled or mis-spelt in 1712, 1716 1762, 1894 and 1990 ("A run-down suburb: shops boarded-up, mis-spelt graffiti everywhere.")

Very interesting. The hyphenated version appears to be current, though infrequent. For example, I found mis-spelling in Google-News over the last month; there is more than twice as much for mis-spelled:

• forced to endure the mis-spelling of his forename (This is Local London; also Tribalfootball.com, Australia; each today)
• one of those mis-spelling bait sites, he says, setup to sell stuff like airline tickets (Inquirer, UK, Mar 12, 2007)
• If I stop every few seconds to fix a mis-spelling ... (WebProNews, KY, Feb. 23, 2007)
• It’s not good to start an important editorial with a mis-spelling! (Sunday Times, South Africa, Mar. 8, 2007)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <wordnerd>,

The hyphenated version appears to be current, though infrequent.

I'd thought I'd seen it before. Thanks for the update.

quote:

Originally posted by Myth Jellies: I've been watching my Wallace and Grommit, and I wonder if "peckish" (mildly hungry or irritable) also comes from the same root?

I've never heard of Wallace and Gromit before. And I don't recall ever hearing peckish before, either. Is it a common word? Or did Wallace and Gromit popularize it with Have you been peckish during the night? in A Close Shave?

To answer your question, the ODE Online says that peck is, apparently, a variant of pick and that pick and peak are, apparently, variants of pike. Under pike, the OED says, "In English, PIKE n.1, PICK n.1, PEAK n.2 (and PECK n.2) appear to have a common origin, and share many senses; ..."

That brings us to pique. Yes, Kalleh, it's related to pike, as Zmj pointed out.

The Online Etymology Dictionary has entries for pike, pick, peak, peck and peckish, and pique. Notice that peaked, "pointed," and peaked, "sickly," are not etymologically related.

Tinman

Is it a common word?

I first heard and looked up the word peckish early in my high school years when I watched the Cheese Shop Sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus.

quote:

Well, I was, uh, sitting in the public library on Thurmond Street just now, skimming through Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.

It's also where I first heard of Hugh Walpole and the word esurient. I've always felt that TV added to my vocabulary.

[Fixed typo.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Peckish is an extremely common word here.

And I think "peaked" is fairly common here, but others seem to disagree.

Zmj, I love that word "esurient!"

Reviving a thread
This thread piqued my interest...

I was reviewing a manuscript that was submitted for publication, and the authors stated, "This peaked my interest." At first I thought, "What fools!" Then I thought about it further, and realized that you probably could use "peaked" that way. This short description explains that pique is a French word meaning "prick," in the sense of "stimulate."