Key Takeaways
" Well , we ’re in a genuine pickle now . " It sound quaint , but we know what it means : We ’re in a real spot of trouble . But when you step back and think about it , why do we say anything about muddle at all when we ’re in a jam ? Where did this phrase amount from ?
Older Than Shakespeare
You ’re not wrong if you think being in a jam sounds old - fashioned . The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) has the earliest - bed written instance of this phrase as from 1562 . Granted , it ’s early days for modernEnglish , so it looks a little unmated to us now , but the idea is there :
In this quote , the source John Heywood is saying that homo is brittle , or frail , and thatfrailties pickle , or keep , like pickle foods do . Even the OED let in that this early object lesson is a little weak . But in this quotation mark from 1585 byJohn Foxin a sermon he pay on 2 Corinthians , the meaning is closer to how we habituate it today :
By nature , humans are in a pickle , which sure as shooting feel right most days . By 1711 , we can well key how theauthor Richard Steele was feeling :
But Why Pickle?
lot of people do think Shakespeare uprise the musical phrase . He ’s the author of so many phrases we still apply , it seems reasonable to consider he ’s responsible for this one too . He did practice it in " The Tempest " :
Here , Shakespeare was using " pickle " to mean " drunk . " Since you could preserve thing in alcoholic beverage , it ’s not a far leap from one to the other . But it is kind of a saltation from " drunk " to " pickle " to " seemingly unavoidable problem . "
One answer might come from England , where " pickle " can mean the chopped - up condiment Americans usually call " relish . " That ’s more kindred to the smell of being in a hole than the feeling a prissy , crispy gherkin brings to mind . TheMerriam - WebsterUnabridged Dictionary total some free weight to this theory by take down that in the U.K. , being in a jam intend something more like " in a mess " rather than " in difficulty , " which is the more American sense .
