Cucumber

Lots of people have cucumbers in their gardens right now.

I ate a few, and then I got curious.

Why does it take three syllables to talk about an edible plant part that so many of us love? Beans, peas, and grapes are monosyllabic, and as far as I know, we’ve been eating them and cucumbers for a long time.

Pickles are smaller than cucumbers, which makes sense since most cucumbers used to make them are on the small side. I’m also not sure if cucumbers were the first vegetables used to make pickles, so pickles may very well be an older concept.

It only took about thirty seconds to find an answer.

The word has lived for many centuries, and probably came to Latin from an unrelated language (which one isn’t specified.)

From Latin, it may have come from Old Occitan before making its way into Old French. There, it was picked up by Middle English, then it traveled into Modern English where we know and love it today.

Now, when we walk through our vegetable gardens, we can imagine the Romans and the people before them doing the same thing, and when we take a cool, refreshing bite, we can be with the past in spirit.