Why Do We Say We're 'In a Pickle'?

By: Kristen Hall-Geisler  | 
In a pickle
Have you ever been in a pickle? If so, you might have wondered where the phrase comes from. HowStuffWorks
Key Takeaways
  • The phrase "in a pickle" dates back to 1562, meaning in a spot of trouble.
  • Shakespeare used "pickle" to mean "drunk," possibly influencing phrase.
  • In the U.K., "pickle" can mean "mess," aligning with feeling of being in a pickle.

"Well, we're in a real pickle now." It sounds quaint, but we know what it means: We're in a real spot of trouble. But when you step back and think about it, why do we say anything about pickles at all when we're in a jam? Where did this phrase come from?

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Older Than Shakespeare

You're not wrong if you think being in a pickle sounds old-fashioned. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has the earliest-known written instance of this phrase as from 1562. Granted, it's early days for modern English, so it looks a little odd to us now, but the idea is there:

"Man is brickell. Freilties pickell. Poudreth mickell, Seasonyng lickell."

In this quote, the author John Heywood is saying that man is brittle, or frail, and that frailties pickle, or keep, like pickled foods do. Even the OED admits that this early example is a little weak. But in this quote from 1585 by John Fox in a sermon he gave on 2 Corinthians, the meaning is closer to how we use it today:

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In this pickle lyeth man by nature, that is, all wee that be Adams children.

By nature, humans are in a pickle, which certainly feels correct most days. By 1711, we can easily identify how the author Richard Steele was feeling:

I am ashamed to be caught in this Pickle.

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But Why Pickle?

Lots of people do think Shakespeare originated the phrase. He's the source of so many phrases we still use, it seems reasonable to think he's responsible for this one too. He did use it in "The Tempest":

How cam'st thou in this pickle?/ I have bin in such a pickle since I saw you last.

Here, Shakespeare was using "pickle" to mean "drunk." Since you can preserve things in alcohol, it's not a far leap from one to the other. But it is kind of a leap from "drunk" to "pickle" to "seemingly inescapable problem."

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One answer might come from England, where "pickle" can mean the chopped-up condiment Americans usually call "relish." That's more akin to the feeling of being in a pickle than the feeling a nice, crisp gherkin brings to mind. The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary adds some weight to this theory by noting that in the U.K., being in a pickle means something more like "in a mess" rather than "in trouble," which is the more American sense.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How did the phrase "in a pickle" evolve in American English?
In American English, the phrase evolved to mean being in a difficult situation, influenced by the messy and entangled nature of pickles or relish.
Are there other languages with similar expressions to "in a pickle"?
Yes, many languages have similar idiomatic expressions that convey being in a difficult or complicated situation, often using local foods or cultural references.

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