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gherkin

gher·kin

UK/ˈɡɜːkɪn/ US/ˈɡɝkɪn/ uncommon informal slang uk

noun

1.

any of various small cucumbers pickled whole

2.

Origin

From a form of Dutch gurk, an archaic variant of augurk (“small pickled cucumber”), from Low German, from Middle Low German agurke, augurke, probably via Slavic (compare Polish ogórek), from Byzantine Greek ἀγγούριον (angoúrion, “cucumber”). The underlying Dutch form may be a diminutive (gurkijn) or perhaps more probably the plural (gurken), which was then associated with the English suffix -kin (itself incidentally from Dutch or Low German). Compare German Gurke.

Phrases

  • burr gherkin
  • jerk the gherkin
  • jerkin the gherkin
  • sea gherkin
  • West Indian gherkin

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.