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pickle

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Pronunciation

pickle1 brine, preserved food

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

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)