piquant

piquant [ˈpikənt, -kɑnt, piˈkɑnt] a.

1.) Pleasantly pungent or tart in taste; spicy.
2.) Appealingly provocative: a piquant wit.
3.) Charming, interesting, or attractive: a piquant face.
4.) [Archaic] Causing hurt feelings; stinging (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).

Etymology: French, from Old French, present participle of piquer, to prick.

"Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself" ("Self-Reliance", Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841).