piccalilli
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.49 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A yellow pickle relish made from cauliflower, vegetable marrow, and other vegetables, pickled with vinegar, salt, sugar, and spiced with mustard, turmeric, and other spices.
British usage
Example Sentences
Etymology
Unknown. First use appears c. 1758. Presumably a variant of pickle, which itself is from Middle English pekille (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”) or pikel, from Middle Dutch pekel (“brine”); perhaps influenced by dialectal variants. Alternatively, it may be related to paco lilla (“ginger-spiced pickle”), from the 18th century British cookbook The Art of Cookery (1747–1843; e.g., 1805 edition) by Hannah Glasse (1708–1770), also referred to as Indian pickles, which suggests an Indo-Aryan source; compare mulligatawny, of Tamil origin, which also features turmeric prominently, and curry, of Tamil or Middle English origin (or a blend). Not etymologically related to Piccadilly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: pekille, pekel, -
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.