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So equivalent to popular science for the US crowd. I'm curious, why 'cucumber' news? Just due to the harvest time of the plant, or is there some cultural signi

• soegaard 4y ago
  "Cucumber time" is the season, where news paper doesn't have anything to report on than cucumbers. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cuc2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cuc2.htm https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid
  • severine 4y ago
    Other examples would be, according to Wikipedia, "silly season" in english, "serpiente de verano" (summer snake) in spanish, "Sommerloch" in german, and a bunch of others. Very common phenomenon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season
  • LeonM 4y ago
    In Dutch it is "komkommertijd" [0], which also literally translates to "cucumber time". It has the exact same meaning. [0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd
• mikaoj85 4y ago
  «Silly season/cucumber time» Harvest time, indeed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season
• madmoose 4y ago
  Apparently it's from German around 1780, for the time during the summer when the cucumbers ripen, everyone is on vacation, and business is slow. That's what the Danish wikipedia entry says, at least. https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid#Ophav https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid#Ophav https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season#Other_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season#Other_names
  • zrobotics 4y ago
    Ah, so the US "dog-days of summer". Not going to lie, I prefer the silly-season nomenclature, it captures the lack of motivation and malaise that seems to set in during the height of summer much better. Thanks for the explanation, very interesting.
    • adrian_b 4y ago
      English "dog-days" is just a translation of Latin "caniculares dies", which came from the time of visibility before sunrise of the "Dog Star" a.k.a. Sirius.
  • aerique 4y ago
    We have the same expression in Dutch: "komkommertijd". The Dutch Wikipedia mentions English, German or Jiddisch as possible sources: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd
    • AndyJames 4y ago
      Same in Polish "sezon ogórkowy"
    • KingOfCoders 4y ago
      Everytime tehre is a funny word in German E.g. "Hechtsuppe" I assume it to be Jiddisch or Rotwelsch.
    • marttt 4y ago
      Same in Estonia, "hapukurgihooaeg". Literal translation of the German "Sauregurkenzeit".
  • konschubert 4y ago
    Sauregurkenzeit