Word To Use Today: gherkin.

Well, a gherkin is, obviously, a small gherk, isn't it?

(A gherkin, for the benefit of American friends, is a small pickled cucumber-like thing.* It might be of the species Cucumis sativus, Cucumis anguria, or even Melothria scabra...

...well, that's what a gherkin is unless it's a large unpickled cucumber-like thing like this:


this London skyscraper is nicknamed The Gherkin, to the annoyance of its architects, Jean Mich and Norman Foster. It's offical name is 30, St Mary Axe, or sometimes the Swiss Re Tower.

Gherkin also a computer language for use with Cucumber software.)

Well, as in turns out, a gherkin really is a small gherk, pretty much (see below). 

But then who'd want to eat a gherk? I mean, you can practically feel the gas expanding in your gut just reading the word.


Here's are some baby gherkin plants:


photo by Forest & Kim Starr

cute, aren't they?

and here is a formal portrait of an adult:


illustration by Amédée Masclef

In any case, recently for the first time I put away my gherk-prejudice and tried eating a sliced gherkin on brown bread spread with Greek yogurt. 

And, I'm telling you, it was delicious.

Word To Use Today: gherkin. This word comes from the Early Modern Dutch agurkkijn, which means a little gurk, and before that from the Greek angourion.


*Gherkins are apparently called pickles in America. Here in Britain a pickle is a mixture of chopped preserved vegetables in a thick vinegary sauce.