47

I have always thought the phrase was "pique my interest" as in:

Her mysterious background piqued my interest.

However, of late, on blogs and social networks, I have seen people using "peek my interest", as in:

Disney is starting to peek my interest.

And I have even seen:

Samsung's latest display peaks my interest in the company.

Which is the correct phrase?

Improve this question
16
  • 16
    My apologies. I'd already voted to close this as General Reference before checking on Google Internet, where I was shocked to find 8M hits for peaked my interest. The correct version with piqued gets only 1M more, which just goes to show you should never underestimate people's ignorance. At least the written forms are a bit more respectable, but I'm still rather disappointed to see 4400 hits for the erroneous one (but at least the ratio is a bit more respectable, with 62900 for the correct one! :). But it's obviously not that obvious - so once again, sorry for the closevote.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 25, 2013 at 1:20
  • 33
    I wasn't going to look at the beautiful mountain, but the peak, piqued a peek.
    – Fraser Orr
    Jan 25, 2013 at 3:44
  • 8
    @MετάEd: I would say 8M incorrect instances on Google (compared to just 9M correct ones) is a lot more than "starting to gain traction". It's not an alternate spelling - it's just ignorant people who don't know the word pique in the first place, so they "eggcorn" it into a word they do know. And just as you'll never find a dictionary saying eggcorn is an alternative spelling of acorn, this one will never serve any purpose apart from being an indicator of limited vocabulary.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 25, 2013 at 4:29
  • 10
    @coleopterist: Nothing wrong with sharing the answer even if you are the OP. EL&U is perfectly fit for such knowledge sharing.
    – Sayan
    Jan 25, 2013 at 7:23
  • 3
    General Reference means failed to "look it up" an appropriate general reference work such as a dictionary. Doing word frequencies in a corpus is not general reference. That's at least intermediate level research technique.
    – MetaEd
    Jan 25, 2013 at 23:35

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
70

The correct phrase I believe is "pique" my interest.

At first glance this seems incorrect since the noun form of the word "pique" means "irritation and resentment stemming from a wounded ego". However, the verb form of this word has the meaning — "stimulate or excite" and that is the meaning used in the context of the sentences in question.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    The spelling is indeed "pique". It comes from the French "piquer l'intérêt de quelqu'un" ("piquer la curiosité" is also very common). See en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pique for instance.
    – Michel Fioc
    Dec 25, 2015 at 17:39
3

A lot more people write now that it's easy to do. Doesn't mean they know how to write. Many times it should have been "piqued my interest" although "peaked my interest" is often used, meaning that the subject has reached a critical mass to be worthy of being at the peak of the person's interest list. "Peeked my interest" is most likely a spelling mistake. I know a few people born here, some even have a university degree, yet they're still unable to choose the correct form for there vs their vs they're.

Improve this answer
5
  • 3
    I wouldn't overstate the case regarding people who're unable to choose the correct form for there vs their vs they're. It's unlikely anyone with a degree would ever fit that description. Educated people only make such mistakes because there "writing on autopilot", not because they're unable to choose the correct form when their paying attention (Okay - they might also choose wrong just for the hell of it! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 25, 2013 at 4:35
  • 2
    @fumbleFingers: Not trying to overstate it. It is true though, even when they try. I have one in the family, it's quite amusing. Year 12 has become much easier to pass and University is now mostly a cash-cow for the government. But anyway, it's the Y generation that use peaked quite often, as it's a cool phrase to use.
    – Chris
    Jan 25, 2013 at 5:09
  • The same people also "tow the line" and do things "off their own backs" (both of which are becoming more common).
    – MikeJ-UK
    Jan 25, 2013 at 13:15
  • I agree that it is simply a spelling mistake. However, maybe we should start a trend where to have "Peeked my interest" means to have surreptitiously surveyed it? Taking the meaning from the technical term peek and poke.
    – user14070
    Jan 25, 2013 at 14:51
  • 2
    @Chris: Granted, I probably understated my side there. But I don't think piqued/peaked is really in the same "error class" as there/their/they're. My guess is the vast majority of the former really are down to ignorance as to what the word should be (usually, people don't really know the correct word at all), whereas for the latter it's normally just carelessness. Ordinarily, I think people are much less likely to make those "careless" errors with relatively uncommon/unusual words like pique.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 25, 2013 at 16:36
-1

Piqued (my interest) = stimulated, captured, awoke [20th century]. The ignorance of the masses is wreaking fundamental changes to our language (the one I am writing in; I don't know about the others). With the proliferation of personal computers and cell phone text messaging, not to mention new arrivals having a different native language and a shaky understanding of our language, millions of barely educated or untutored are having an increasing impact on the language. Authors often pander to the ignorance of their readers, even breaking common compound words into their original parts for the simplistic of mind. Or over-using some words to where they have little meaning in some contexts eg. Totally (try substituting): completely, absolutely, undoubtedly, entirely, wholly, exclusively, fully... We look to others to tell us what is when often we need to remember what was and judge the answers we receive in the light thereof.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    This seems to be the stream of thoughts triggered in your mind by the question, rather than an actual answer.
    – itsbruce
    Nov 11, 2013 at 14:59
  • 1
    Sounds more like a rant than an explanation of the meaning.
    – Michael Brown
    Apr 23, 2015 at 14:12
  • Much of the evolution of language has been due to "ignorance of the masses". If enough people misuse a word or phrase, it becomes the normal use. It's not necessarily a bad thing.
    – Barmar
    Jun 13, 2016 at 17:44
  • Wall of text. Bad style. What's the world coming too?!
    – hippietrail
    Feb 3, 2020 at 22:44
-5

English isn't my first language, but I think there are more pitfalls here than what's apparent at first sight.

I believe that if the meaning is "made me interested in ...", then the correct spelling is "piqued my interest."

But "peaked my interest" is grammatically correct ('peak' is a verb, after all), but with a different meaning: "reached the height of my possible interest in ...", so the phrase:

Disney is starting to peak my interest.

would actually mean/imply something like "Disney is starting to make me less interested", since after you've reached the peak, there's only one way you can go.

If you follow this thought sequence, and start looking at:

Disney is starting to peek my interest.

you end up spooked.

Improve this answer
7
  • 5
    "peaked my interest", for general use, is not grammatically correct, as the verb "to peak" is intransitive. So my interest can peak (i.e. it can reach its maximum value), but it cannot be peaked. (Apparently there are transitive versions of "to peak"; one is a nautical term; the other I've never heard of.)
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Jan 25, 2013 at 12:19
  • 3
    "peek my interest" is also not grammatically correct, as "to peek" must be followed by a preposition, e.g. "at" or "under".
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Jan 25, 2013 at 12:20
  • 2
    Yes, the only reason to deliberately use either is because a peak or a peek is relevant and you are punning. But such puns are possible with just about any construction that would be incorrect generally.
    – Jon Hanna
    Jan 25, 2013 at 12:45
  • @JonHanna: true. However, my impression from the question is that most people are doing this because they're unaware of the correct spelling, rather than in order to make a pun.
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Jan 25, 2013 at 13:02
  • +1 because you cover the common turn of phrase, and then go on to make a point about a possible pun that is reasonable and grammatically correct. @SteveMelnikoff's link to m-w shows that to peak can be used transitively for the very meaning in question here.
    – kojiro
    Jan 25, 2013 at 13:02

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.