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Peak or pique?
Peak: verb – mope, shrink (in terms of movement) or slink; become droopy
in health or spirits, waste away; look sickly or emaciated, as in peak and
pine; stick up or rise in a peak; achieve maximum value, activity, or condition;
maintain a level after reaching a peak; bring to a head or maximum; accentuate.
Pique: verb – provoke someone to action or
emotion by arousing jealousy or other negative emotion; arouse someone's curiosity
or interest; wound someone's pride or irritate, offend or make resentful;
congratulate oneself on something, take a pride in.
A pair of homonyms, both
of which have individual different meanings, and which don' match each other in
meaning.
In most writing, you'd
probably get these right if you remember that to 'peak' is to reach the highest
point, as in a mountain peak. If you 'pique' someone, however, you're likely
piss them off; the matching 'I' should help.
'In the peak of condition,
Geraldine peaked as she ascended the Matterhorn and reached the peak before her
companions.' (I may have overdone it with the 'peaks' here.)
'Gordon was a little piqued
when Martha, in rather acid tones, remarked that he was not the most splendid
manifestation of the male she had ever come across.'
7 September 1992 My
daughter, Kate was born, bringing great joy into my life. She’s off to
University at the weekend, to study photography; clever girl.
7 September 1936 Another
extinction: the last Tasmanian tiger died.
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