Pepper, Pickle, and Kipper

Extract

When we find an English word beginning with p, we quite properly suspect it of being an adopted word—if not evidently imitative or of nursery origin. For early English words beginning with p there are two chief sources: Latin (including indirectly Greek) and Celtic. If the word appears only in England, it may a priore have come from either of these languages. If it is found both in England and on the continent, it is almost sure to have come from the Latin. Pickle appears both in England and in North Germany, Holland, etc., and we are therefore justified in suspecting a Latin origin for it. It also belongs to the category of words that we know to have been largely drawn from Italy. In the earliest days the Italian traders introduced piper ‘pepper,’ vinum ‘wine,’ acetum ‘essig,’ etc. Later the Germanic peoples owed much of the development of the culinary art among them to the Christian priests and monks from Italy. They were fond of good living, of spices and of sauces. They brought with them from the South seeds and plants, and they raised vegetables and herbs for the table and for the cure of the sick. It is, therefore, but natural that we should suppose that so artificial a product as pickles should have had a similar source. These considerations and a knowledge of the South-German use of pfeffer in senses similar to those of pickle led me to associate pickle with pepper. One kind of pickling suggested that kipper was only another form of the same word.