The word pickle is related to a similar-sounding Dutch word, pekel, meaning “brine.” In the 1400s, a pickle was a spicy sauce. Soon the word came to refer to the salty or acidic used to preserve foods, and later to the foods themselves preserved in it, such as pickled cucumbers. The old Dutch phrase in de pekel zitten literally means “to sit in the pickle brine.” The English phrase to be in a pickle used to mean “to be quite inebriated,” as in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Bookshop|Amazon) where one character says to the other: I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last! meaning “I’ve been so drunk!” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “In a Pickle with Mustard on Top”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Janice, and I am from Louisville, Kentucky.
There was an email that I got at work, and this guy was saying that he couldn’t answer my question because it puts him in a bit of a pickle.
So I started thinking about that, and I’ve heard that term over the years, but I really don’t understand why people would say I’m in a pickle if they can’t do something or answer something because the way I see it, pickles are delicious. They’re fun. You know, you’ve got sweet pickles, you’ve got sour pickles, you’ve got spicy pickles. I don’t see a pickle as being a problem.
Yeah, well, there’s a bit of history to this term, Janice. The word pickle is related to a similar sounding Dutch word, pickle. And we have to look at the history of this word a little bit. In the earliest sense, the word pickle in English referred to a kind of spicy sauce, you know, something that would have a lot of chopped things in it, and you serve it with meat.
And over time, pickle came to refer to the salty or acidic liquid that you put things in to, you know, preserve them like fruits and vegetables. And over time, pickle came to specify the things that were preserved in that brine, such as pickled cucumbers.
And there’s an old Dutch phrase that goes, in de pekelsitten, which literally means to sit in the pickle brine, which doesn’t sound very comfortable, does it?
Oh my goodness. How did you ever find that?
Oh, that’s what we do. But there’s more to that because metaphorically, this Dutch expression that means to sit in the pickle brine.
Metaphorically, it means to be drunk.
So you’re completely saturated with this foreign substance.
You know, you’re soaking in this powerful liquid.
Yeah, yeah, you’re soused, you’re sauced.
You know, you’re saturated with alcohol in this powerful liquid that changes you.
And actually, as early as 1561, you’ll see this expression in Dutch.
And then after that, you also see it in English.
You see the phrase to be in a pickle, meaning quite inebriated.
And if you go back to Shakespeare in The Tempest, there’s a character who says to another one, I’ve been in such a pickle since I saw you last.
And by that, in that context, what he means is I’ve been so drunk.
And it may be that this idea of extreme drunkenness then extended to being in a less than optimal state.
You know, if you’re really drunk, then you’re really messed up.
You’re not your usual self.
You’re making new problems for yourself.
And then over time, that just sort of softened into having a problem.
But that’s the basic idea.
Well, I am just so glad to know that history.
And I really appreciate you taking my call.
Oh, it was our pleasure.
Oh, sure.
Stay out of those pickles.
I know.
Thanks, you guys.
Good talking with you.
Bye-bye.
Great talking with you.
Bye-bye.
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