peaked

peaked pronunciation

/PEE-kid/

Meaning

When Mama says you look peaked, she means you look poorly: thin face, no color, not quite right. It is not a high point. In Southern and Appalachian mouths the sick sense is two syllables, PEE-kid. You can feel peaked or look peaked without being flat on your back. Just off enough that somebody notices.

How folks use it

• “You look peaked today. You comin' down with something?”
• “She's been peaked all week since that fever.”

Origin and etymology

From the idea of a sharp, pinched face that looks peak-like when somebody is ill or half-starved. American print uses the sick sense by the early 1800s. Southerners kept the two-syllable pronunciation that outsiders often miss when they see the spelling.

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