3 ms·

While this is correct, in American vernacular 'pickle' without qualifications is precisely a gherkin.

• jfengel 6y ago
  My understanding was different. In the US, if you ask for a "pickle", what you'll get is about 3-4 inches long. If you ask for a gherkin, it's likely to be more like 1-1.5 inches long. The "-kin" suffix is diminutive. Etymology isn't destiny, but I think most American speakers think of gherkins as smaller than pickles. Wikipedia is a little confusing on the subject. It confirms that gherkins are small, but also "up to five inches". Which is indeed small for a cucumber, but cucumbers bigger than 5 inches are rarely pickled (they get mushy). So the notion of gherkins as "small pickled cucumbers" seems vague, and I think people disagree, but I don't know the geography of that disagreement.
  • samatman 6y ago
    The small ones we call "cornichons" but they're a "pickle", "pickled cucumber" is a redundancy you would seldom hear. And yes, if you get a "gherkin" in the USA it will be on the small side, but "gherkin" in the Commonwealth is just any (cucumber) pickle.