# pickles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles/45346>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles/45346 "2000-12-13T12:51:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Temlen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Temlen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temlen)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles/45346/1 "2000-12-13T12:51:04Z")

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why are pickles called pickles intead of pickled cuccumbers, when other things that are “pickled” are called pickled “whatever they are”?

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles/45346/2 "2000-12-13T14:17:28Z")

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My WAG is that cucumbers where the most common vegetables to be pickled and that people started to refer to “pickled cucumbers” as “pickles”, like “pickle relish” is “relish”, and “tomato ketchup” is “ketchup”.

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pickles/45346/3 "2000-12-13T14:19:12Z")

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Make that “cucumbers **were** …”