Does this statement look familiar?
What I overheard peaked my interest.
The important thing to remember about this phrasing is that it’s wrong.
“Peak”, as a verb, means to attain in a peak, which of course is the pinnacle, top or summit of something. When you consider that, then the above usage makes no sense:
What I overheard attained the top of my interest.
The word you actually want is “pique”, which means to excite or arouse, which makes more sense.
What I overheard aroused my interest.
I think one reason why this error persists is because “pique” is foreign to most people, so they have no idea “peak” has a homonym other than “peek”.
Now you know. :)
