cucumber
Pluralcucumbers
- 1The edible green-skinned fruit of the vine Cucumis sativus, with crisp, pale, watery flesh.
He added crisp cucumber to the sandwich for a fresh crunch.
The chef peeled several cucumbers before dicing them for the cold soup.
Similarcuke
Note
Kitchen English counts it both ways. A whole fruit is a cucumber, but a recipe simply says "add cucumber" once it is sliced. Informally it is a cuke, and colloquially a cumber. Its reputation has not always been crisp: Samuel Johnson, quoted by Boswell in 1785, repeated the physicians' joke that a cucumber should be sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and thrown out as good for nothing.
- 2A climbing or trailing vine of the gourd family, known scientifically as Cucumis sativus.
A single cucumber can send out vines several feet long across the bed.
Gardeners train cucumbers up netting to save space and keep the fruit off the ground.
Note
The plant itself, with a name that has traveled a long way to reach English. Middle English had both cucumer and cucumber, from Old French cocombre and ultimately from Latin cucumis, cucumerem, perhaps by way of Old Occitan. Latin probably took the word from a pre-Italic substrate language, which makes cucumber one of the older plant names English has inherited.
- 3A person who remains calm and self-possessed, unruffled in tense or stressful situations.
The negotiator was a cucumber, calmly steering the room through every threat.
While the rest of the staff panicked, she stayed the office cucumber, unflappable as ever.
Note
A compliment that nearly always travels with cool. "One cool cucumber" is the set phrase, borrowing the crisp chill of the fruit. Speakers stretch it to other qualities, too: Derek B. Miller's American By Day (2018) has "a smart cucumber." The word stays informal and half-joking, so it suits casual praise of someone's nerve better than formal writing.
Practice
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Origin
This word came through Middle English and Old French cocombre from Latin cucumis, cucumerem, possibly by way of an Old Occitan form. Before Latin its origin is probably from a Pre-Italic substrate language.