A Transient Feeling of Wounded Vanity

Until I decide otherwise, the title of this post is the best dictionary definition I've ever read. 

If you google "in a fit of pique" you'll find an odd assortment of rash things people did, wrote, or said at a moment of, well, "wounded vanity".  If you search "piqué" at clothing merchant Land's End, you'll find some lovely polo shirts made of an oh-so-soft fabric.  So w here do we go with this?  Does pique mean upset or soft?

You guessed it (you know me so well), it means neither.  To completely clarify matters, let's add in another variant: picante as in picante sauce - America's favorite condiment.  Did that help?  No?  Then let's add in another Mexican restaurant staple: pico de gallo.  Yes, that should clarify everything.

Let's get to work here.  Picante sauce and pico de gallo are made of similar ingredients (tomato, onion, peppers, yada yada yada).  Pico is chunkier than picante and is served as a topping or side to some dishes whereas picante sauce (aka: salsa) is a chip dip or condiment.  As far as I can tell, the main difference between the two is the size of component ingredients.  Remember the peppers?  What category do they fall into - spices.  And that's our first real clue.  Spice and picante and pico share a common core - pic.  I'll deal with the s- part of the story in another post.  And you're probably running out ahead of me, yes, pick and spike are also related words.

Now, at this point of the story, I usually bring in some obscure old word that some people, somewhere, thousands of years ago used and I demand that all the words are related because of that one word.  (We're really getting to know each other aren't we?)  Well, that's just what I'm going to do.  The IE root is (s)peik.  (Remember we'll deal with the mysterious s- later.)  Let's break down pico de gallo to understand this.  Do you remember any Spanish?  What does "gallo" mean?  Right, rooster.  What do you think pico refers to?  Pico is the beak (s/peik) of the rooster.  A beak is sharp, like a spike, like spicy foods.  Salsa picante or "piquant sauce" has a sharp, spikey taste thanks to those spices.  Just like a bird pecks at the ground with its sharp beak to find food, the spice in piquant foods pecks at your taste buds - hopefully in a pleasing way.

What about those polo shirts?  It has nothing to do with the oh-so-soft material the shirt is made from, but rather the process by which it is made.  Ever watch your mother knit or crochet?  What did she use to weave that oh-so-soft yarn together - hard, sharp spikes, needles.  The fabric is thus called piqué (pee-kay) in reference to the process.

Now, where the heck was I, oh yes, "a fit of pique" (pronounced: peek).  Let's say you're on a first date, you're trying to get to know the other person, but you don't have a lot invested in the relationship.  The date hasn't been going well anyway and then the other person hauls off and says something utterly rude / stupid / suggestive.  That's it.  Grab the water glass, drench the fool, and storm out "in a fit of pique".  Pique is a transient feeling of wounded vanity.  Your pride (vanity) feels like it got pecked by a rooster, jabbed with a knitting needle, yada yada yada.

It's all true.  I wouldn't make it up.