gherkin

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“
306. West Indian gherkin (_Cucumis Anguria The name gherkin is applied to small pickling cucumbers.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A West Indian vine (Cucumis anguria) having prickly mature fruits that are sold as curiosities. The immature fruits are widely used for pickling.
  2. noun The fruit of this plant. Also called gooseberry gourd.
  3. noun A small cucumber, especially one used for pickling.

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Gherkin has been looked up 227 times, favorited once, listed 19 times, and commented on once.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Dutch gurken, pl. of gurk, cucumber, short for agurk, possibly from Polish ogorek, perhaps from Late Greek angourion.

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  1. Formerly also gerkin, girkin, gurkin, guerkin (the h or u being intended “to keep the g hard”), from Dutch agurkje (prob. once *agurkken, with diminutive suffix -ken = English -kin, equivalent to diminutive -je) = Danish agurk = Swedish gurka = German gurke, a cucumber, gherkin, from Bohemian okurka = Servian ugorka = Polish ogorek, ogurek = Upper Sorbian korka = Lower Sorbian gurka = Russian oguretsŭ = Hung, ugorka = Lithuanian agurkas = Lett, gurkjis (cf. Middle Latin angurius, Middle Greek ἄγγουρον, ἀγγούριον, New Greek ἀγγούρι, ἀγκούρι, a cucumber, gherkin, of Arabic or Persian origin): cf. Arabic ′ajūr, a cucumber (Persian augūr, a grape). The source can hardly be, as asserted, in the Arabic Persian Turk, khiyār, Hindustani khīrā, a cucumber.
 

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/ˈgərkɪn/
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