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pickle

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Etymology and origin of the English word pickle

Pronunciation

pickle1 brine, preserved food

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1440 Promptorium Parvulorum
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch pēkel via Middle English

Etymology

The food word is inherited from Middle English pikel, also pekel and pikkel,[2] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch pēkel (“brine, pickle”) or its cognate in Middle Low German pēkel,[3][4][5][6][7][8] whence German Pökel (17th century).[3][6] Its further origin is uncertain: the OED suggests the Germanic base of pēken (“to prick, pierce”) (see pick) with the suffix of -el, meaning "something that pricks or is piquant",[3] a connection also allowed by the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster dictionaries;[4][5] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call it of unknown origin.[9][7] Skeat derived it from the English frequentative of pick, with reference to gutting fish before pickling them.[10] A tradition that the word comes from the name of a medieval Dutch fisherman who invented the process, Beukels or similar, is unsupported, as Skeat and Weekley note.[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl: in the Promptorium Parvulorum of 1440, which glosses Pykyl as a sauce,[3][2] and in the alliterative Morte Arthure, where a giant's meal is served "with pekill & powdyre of precious spycez".[2][6] It appears earlier as a surname, Rosia Pikel in 1332.[3][12]

Semantic evolution

As in Middle Dutch, the word was soon used for the salt or acid liquid in which food is preserved;[13][3] Barnhart finds it in 1502 as pigell.[6] The food itself, a vegetable preserved in brine or vinegar, follows from 1663,[3] and Barnhart and Etymonline date the pickled cucumber to 1707;[6][12] in North America pickle is chiefly the cucumber.[3][14] The figurative sense "a sorry plight", first recorded in 1562 in Heywood's epigrams,[3][6] may have been reinforced by Dutch phrases such as in de pekel zitten, recorded from 1561.[3][6][13] The phrase a rod in pickle, a punishment kept ready, is from 1625.[3] Slang added a state of drunkenness (1629),[15] a mischievous child or tearaway (1779),[3][15] and, in Britain, pickles for nonsense (1846).[3] The verb, to preserve in pickle, is recorded from 1526;[3][5] later it also meant to clean metal in acid (1844),[3] and in American military slang to release bombs (1966).[3]

Timeline

  • 1332 – the surname Pikel.[3]
  • 1440 – a spicy sauce served with meat (obsolete).[3][2]
  • 1502 – a brine or vinegar for preserving food.[6]
  • 1526 – verb, to preserve in pickle.[3][5]
  • 1562 – a plight, predicament.[3][6]
  • 1625 – a rod in pickle.[3]
  • 1629 – a state of drunkenness.[15]
  • 1663 – a pickled vegetable.[3]
  • 1779 – a mischievous child.[3]
  • 1782 – an acid solution for cleaning metal.[3]
  • 1846 – pickles, nonsense.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A vegetable, especially a cucumber, preserved in brine or vinegar; chiefly in North America, a pickled cucumber: a jar of pickles.[14][3]
  2. A relish of chopped vegetables or fruit preserved in vinegar or brine.[3][14]
  3. The liquid, such as brine or spiced vinegar, in which food is preserved.[14][5][3]
  4. An acid or other chemical bath used to clean metal or treat skins.[5][3]
  5. (informal) A difficult or awkward situation: We'll be in a real pickle if the ferry is cancelled.[14][3]
  6. (British, informal) A mischievous child.[14][3]
  7. (obsolete) A spicy sauce served with meat.[3][2]

Verb

  1. To preserve food in brine or vinegar.[14][5][3]
  2. To soak in an acid or other chemical solution, as to clean metal.[5][3]
  3. (US military slang) To release a bomb or other load from an aircraft.[3]

Word family

  • pickled
  • pickling
  • pickler
  • pickleweed
  • pickleworm
  • dill pickle
  • bread-and-butter pickle

pickle2 grain, small amount

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1552 Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism

Etymology

The Scots and northern word for a grain or a little of something is of uncertain origin.[3][7] The OED suggests that it may be a noun use of the Scots verb pickle, to peck or pick a little at a time, with reference to grains pecked up by birds, and compares the noun pick.[3] Merriam-Webster likewise takes it as perhaps from that verb,[5][16] which it traces to pikelen, formed from piken (“to pick”) with a frequentative suffix;[5] the OED forms the verb from pick and the suffix -le.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A single grain of wheat, barley or oats: 1552, in Archbishop Hamilton's Catechisme.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

From a grain of corn the word passed to a grain of sand or dust (1604) and then to a small amount of anything (1629), a development the OED compares with that of grain.[3] It is usually used without of: a pickle meal.[3][5] Wright records it in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland, Cumberland and Yorkshire, also as puckle in Shetland, with the figurative sense of a hailstone;[17] Jamieson, whom he quotes, says it properly meant a little of something that falls into separate particles, never of liquids.[17] Scott used it in The Antiquary (1816).[17]

Timeline

  • 1552 – a single grain of wheat, barley or oats.[3][5]
  • 1604 – a grain of sand or dust.[3]
  • 1629 – a small quantity, a little.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Scotland and northern England) A single grain or kernel of corn.[3][5][7][17]
  2. (Scotland and northern England) A small amount; a few, a little: a pickle of salt.[3][5][7][17]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ a b c d e Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

  • nap · also from Middle Dutch
  • tick · also from Middle Dutch
  • prop · also from Middle Dutch
  • rover · also from Middle Dutch
  • groove · also from Middle Dutch
  • mesh · also from Middle Dutch
  • slack · also from Middle Dutch
  • scum · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Pickle.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pickle. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·