Pickled

How to spell pickled

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pickled

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pickled mean?

1. adjectivePreserved by being soaked in vinegar or salty brine.
2. adjectiveInformally, very drunk.

Pickled in a sentence

• The deli sold jars of pickled onions next to the cheese counter.

• By midnight half the wedding guests were thoroughly pickled.

• A plate of pickled herring came with the rye bread.

• He got completely pickled at the office party and missed his train.

Where does pickled come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word grows from the noun 'pickle', which English borrowed in the late Middle Ages from Middle Dutch 'pekel', a word for the salty, spiced brine in which food was steeped to keep it from spoiling. The original 'pekel' referred to the liquid itself rather than the food, and only later did English speakers extend it to the preserved items soaking inside. By the 1500s 'to pickle' had become a verb meaning to soak in vinegar or brine, and 'pickled' followed naturally as the adjective and past participle describing food treated that way. The cheerful slang sense of 'pickled' meaning thoroughly drunk appeared by the 1700s, drawing on the comic image of a person steeped in alcohol much as a cucumber sits steeped in vinegar. The spelling keeps the double obstacle of the 'ck' and the silent-sounding '-le' of pickle, so the only real trap is remembering that the base ends in '-le' before the '-d' is added.

How the word is built

• pickle (from Middle Dutch pekel: brine, spiced sauce)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)