Etymology

pickle

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Today it means: A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup. Full definition →

Middle English pikel ← Middle Low German pekel
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pickle · noun, verb1

  1. Middle Low German · derived frompekel“brine”
  2. Middle English · inherited frompikel“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”
  3. English todaypickle

From Middle English pikel (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”), borrowed from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German pekel (“brine”). Cognate with Scots pikkill (“salt liquor, brine”), Saterland Frisian Piekele (“pickle, brine”), Dutch pekel (“pickle, brine”), Low German pekel, peckel, pickel, bickel (“pickle, brine”), German Pökel (“pickle, brine”), Icelandic pækill (“brine”).

pickle · noun, verb2

Perhaps from Scottish pickle, apparently from pick + -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Scots pickil.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.