homophone, /'hɑmə,fon/

[trochee]

peak: noun: the tip of a mountain
peek: noun: short look; verb: to take a short look
pique: noun: anger, frustration, irritation; verb, to stimulate, especially as in to pique s.o.'s interest, probably only distantly related to the nominal sense; (noun: apparently also a fabric and a way of inlaying tortoiseshell, though they may be pronounced /pike/ not /pik/, disqualifying them as homophones).

[update from marnanel:]
Peke: noun, slangy: a small yappy dog (from Pekinese)
[update from _dkg_:]
peek: verb, computer jargon: to read the value of a memory location directly

Comments

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I always have trouble with homophones. I usually remember spelling based on sound, which is a rather silly thing to do if you're hard of hearing anyway.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Peke: small yappy dog

[trochee.livejournal.com]

heh -- it isn't just you, although your recent post was a catalyst. And it's not intended as a judgement, just an observation.

I'm a very logos-oriented person, and very spelling-sensitive, so to me they all have different flavors.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

pique means Spades in French.
piquer also means to sting. Hee.
ooh and ...piquer is also slang for to steal.

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I didn't feel you were judging me, don't worry :)
But if you do see something like that, feel free to point it out. I will, generally, find it embarrassing, which is a fantastic motivating point to force me to remember the correct spelling ;)

[trochee.livejournal.com]

heh, even though I know its origin is French, I always associate pique with Spanish picante (itchy, pokey) and picador, the spearman assistant in a bullfight.

So my mental image for pique is somebody with a small spear.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Like a pikeman?

[trochee.livejournal.com]

oo, yes! I'd forgotten the cognate pike.

Ignore the sleep-induced insanity...

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

picador... personally, i'm a bigger fan of the slightly larger, more versatile micrador. When serving a large party, i just go all out and use a reguluar unidor.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dkg_/]

And don't forget the jargon file's definition of peek. While probably not a strict homophone (does identical spelling disqualify from homophony?), and obviously derived from the original peek, it's a strongly distinct meaning (at least in my own muddled head).

[trochee.livejournal.com]

not the usual definition of homophone, it doesn't. The JF version just happens to also be a homograph with the take-a-short-look.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dkg_/]

ah, but this version is more likely to be take-a-byte-look than take-a-short-look. ;)

[solri.livejournal.com]

Peek is also a heat-resistant carbon fibre (poly-ether ether ketone).

[ex-caracola454.livejournal.com]

/pik/ clipping of "PK" (Pastor's Kid), as in "Miriam is a PK."

[la-chispa.livejournal.com]

I read the "s.o." in "as in to pique s.o.'s interest" as "significant other, which added even more layers to the discussion in my head.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

oo, that would be quite interesting, that one.

[congogirl.livejournal.com]

and then there is pique-nique!