Two Words

I guess because I'm an English major I tend to notice certain oddities dealing with language. (Although, I must admit, I detest saying that because then everyone assumes I'm perfectly competent in every aspect of the language, and as a result should never err in any form of writing or speech. But, in fact, I'm far from such a status, and perhaps the reason I'm pursing English is to amend those inconsistencies. I think this tangent stopped making sense, and it's very possible I'm imagining this to be true, when, in reality, no one has even noticed.)

But back to what I originally meant to say: I've noticed something. Two particular words, that is. These two happen to be: "Whet" and "Pique." The reason I bring these to your attention is because they're almost always associated with the phrases "Whet my appetite" and "My interest is piqued" or any variant thereof. However, what I don't understand is why these words have unique spellings as opposed to "wet" and "peak"? You see, when I ruminate the notion of becoming hungry and smelling some delicious morsel I'm about to ravish, what happens? I salivate! AKA, my saliva glands start.. getting wet! Not "whet," but wet. Follow? So let's apply the same logical approach to my interest and/or curiosity. If my interest in a subject matter is "low" that indicates boredom. If my interest in a subject matter is "high" that indicates.. interest. Therefore, if my interest has climbed to a high reaching level--it's highest, in fact--why then, can't my interest be "peaked"? So my conclusion resides in this inquiry: Why!?

I hopelessly demand answers!