Here’s another writing pet peeve — when folks confuse peak (or peek), and pique. Here’s an example of proper usage: I live in Denver, Colorado, so I have a lovely view of the mountain peaks when I look to the West, but my interest is piqued when I find a good book about world history.
Instead, what I see most commonly is “this really peaked my interest,” or “I thought this would peek your interest.”
This doesn’t trouble me too much when I see it on blogs, mailing lists, and so forth. I’m used to seeing language atrocities there… but it’s just a different story when it’s something from a communications professional, i.e., from a PR person.
Okay, but what especially chaffs my hide is the high frequency of confusion between the proper spellings and usages of “led” versus “lead”!
seriously? chafes. chaff is the shit that blows away in the wind.
But Piqued means to cause resentment.
Brianna: NO! That is just one of the definitions and not the most common. The most common (as one may guess from the topic of the post by Mr. Brockheimer.
What do I do about my friend who is always commenting on my Facebook posts, but misspelling words or using improper grammar? What led me here was her misspelling of “piqued” (as “peaked”). I don’t want to permanently hide her, but I don’t want to embarrass her either.
Wally
I’m piqued every time I peek at a peak.
Thanks to Joe Brockmeier for this post and to Doc Breezy for the chuckle.
Having been raised by a “closet” English teacher, I often shudder at the misuse of words. The one that TRULY gets under my skin is the confusion of THERE, THEIR, THEY’RE…aaghh! Didn’t we all learn these basic fundamentals in grade school?
As the mother of teenagers (and the owner of Eats, Shoots & Leaves), the one that gets me is YOU’RE vs. YOUR. I don’t even mind UR, but can’t they be separated to indicate YOU’RE? I do hope Doc was referring to a mountain!
Basic fundamentals? Well said.
too too cool
Awesome. I love it.
Even though “piqued my interest” is the common and accepted and overused cliche, it is perfectly proper usage to say “peaked my interest” as well…as in “took my interest level to a new height”
Yes, that’s what I thought, too. I used the phrase “peaked my interest” as a way to say that my interest in that topic couldn’t have been higher. Although, maybe that WAS wrong. I’m no English teacher… haha
Overused cliche? Well said. (Thank you, Josiah.)
It’s not a “cliche”, but a collocation. “Piqued my interest” and “piqued my curiosity” are the most common lexical chunks for the verb ‘pique’.
“Peaked my interested” is the result of linguistic processing errors in a new generation. That’s not to say that it’s wrong – It’s just a new construction for a new generation of English users, just as ‘alright’ is now a commonly accepted alternative to ‘all right’, although prescriptivist grammar teachers might have a conniption.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..The End =-.
What if the writer means that his/her interest is at its zenith. “Piqued” wouldn’t be appropriate in that case, since it does not offer a relative measure of the degree of the “spark”. I think “peaked” would be good way of indicating the magnitude of the writer’s interest.
Example: I was very interested in the discussion about proper grammar, but my interested was really peaked by the assertion that random strangers could decide what an unknown writer was trying to say about an unknown subject in a converstation without context based souly on past usage of a word that is unrelated except for the way it sounds when spoken.
Hmmm. I don’t think that was proper grammar. But I like the use of the word “peaked”.
@trbnfl8 No. Just… no. Trying to say “well, what if you use this entirely different context…” doesn’t work. Sorry. No.
@trbnfl8: I’m not claiming to be a language expert and I know this is off-topic, but is that the correct usage of souly in your example paragraph? I always thought it was “solely.” Perhaps I am mistaken…
Tell me about it! I just saw a post on Twitter and thought it was misspelled and had to look it up with my wannabe-perfect self. I can’t stand when grown folks misspell but there’s no shame in that because even if you do there’s spell-check to help you correct it.
Thank you, Joe! I did a Google search because I wanted to make sure I was using the word “piqued” correctly, as I was thinking if I should insert “peaked” instead.
By the way …
My biggest pet peeve is when people write “your” when they mean “you’re”. HATE that with a passion!
Here are two that drive me batty:
“I could care less”
“You’ve got another thing coming”
Of course it should be “couldn’t” and “think!”
Um, I have thought about “could or couldn’t care less” and have reasoned:
“Couldn’t care less” would be the bottom of the caring scale. “Could care less” is an unfinished statement that continues, “… and be better for it.” It denotes an improved option of less caring, better then the present level of caring. Think, “I SHOULD care less.” How ’bout that? Sometimes old phrases like that have an opposite sound that their real meaning denotes. I also think that “could care less” is the “original” and is mostly misunderstood…
Enjoy
Opposite sound THAN their real meaning denotes… Self-correction on the nit-pickinest thread ever…
When GenY gets into power, thr will be a new dictionary. Words like pk will help to avoid the confusion in the OP. All of Appreciarrific’s woes will be solved by the new and versatile word “thr” which replaces all three versions of their there and they’re.
I am still unsure if they will include a word like sly to cover solely and souly since the combination of s followed by l followed by y is already taken by another word. Sorry about that trbnfl8, looks like you’re gonna have to learn the difference. =)
I guess it’s our job to keep Gen Y out of power…
I am always bothered when people use the word “irregardless”. It is redundant to add the “ir” to the “regardless”. The suffix “less” means “without” and the prefix “ir” means “not”. So irregardless means “not without regard”, which would actually mean that it is with regard that something is done.
I cringe when people pronounce niche as nitch.
I also dislike folks saying “I eat healthy” instead of healthily.
Are adverbs disappearing in American English?
I keep a file on my desk top. It’s called “idiot statements” and contains copied and pasted postings of such words as “chester draws” and “candle opera” and “swivel sticks”….as well as “peeked my interest.”
And they walk among us…and breed!
If improper English usage peeves you then I want to add to your misery. If your local newspaper carries the “Miss Manners” column then check out the etiquette idiots. Sometimes you just want to……………………..
I just stumbled onto this forum. I’m laughing my butt off. I LOVE it. Anybody want to play Scrabble? Let me know if YOUR interested!
[M]y [interest] was really peaked by the assertion that random strangers could decide what an unknown writer was trying to say…
Your claim _might_ be true, if you were trying to say that your interest waned from that point forward.
Like this thread…interesting comment on the younger generation and new constructions…reminded me of a new construction that I have promoted:
My friend’s son was tested as a young child as there were concerns of potential developmental difficulties…the school staff made a big issue of his response to a picture of someone “sweeping”. He said the person in the pic was “brooming”. I say well, why not? I felt that, for his age, it was a logical response and in his honor, I choose to “broom” things occasionally.
Or how about It’s vs Its. It irks me when people use it’s when showing possession. Like “on it’s first day of business:. It would be “on its first day of business”
It’s= It is
and that’s not showing possession
Along the lines of “piqued my interest”, the expression “whet my appetite” ( whet meaning sharpen) is often mis-quoted as “wet my appetite”, which doesn’t even make sense. I’m guessing this epidemic of mis-used homophones is due to a displacement of reading ( of books, not blogs) by audio and video, so people tend to go by the sound of the word and often guess wrong about the spelling.