piquancy

English edit

piquancy (countable and uncountable, plural piquancies)

The degree to which something is piquant, stimulating or exciting.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 197–198:
  At fifteen, her poetry of feeling (you see I do my best to please you with a phrase) would just give piquancy and freshness to her entry into life; but at twenty,...
- 1920, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in Women in Love:
  There was a certain playfulness about her too, such a piquancy or ironic suggestion, such an untouched reserve.

degree to which something is piquant