pike [OE] The earliest recorded meaning of pike is for a pickaxe, pick [ME] simply being a variant form of pike. The freshwater fish the pike [ME] gets its name from the resemblance of its long pointed jaw to the old infantry weapon called a pike, which has a pointed steel or iron head on a long shaft. While basically the same word as Old English pike, this came into English during the 16th century from French piquer ‘to pierce’. In dialect piked ‘pointed’ became picked and then peaked, and this is probably the origin of the word peak [LME] for the pointed top of something such as a mountain. The Australian and New Zealand expressions to pike out, ‘to withdraw or go back on a plan or agreement’, and to pike on, ‘to let someone down’, go back to a 15th- and 16th-century use to pike yourself ‘to provide yourself with a pilgrim’s pike or staff’, and so ‘to depart, leave’. See also plain.