Etymo

cucumber

A long green fruit commonly served as a vegetable.

Played on · Day 56 · word 5 of 5

A Latin stem behind the cucumber

How cucumber reached English

oldest first
  1. Latin

    cucumis

  2. Anglo-French

    cucumbre

  3. Middle English

    cucomer

  4. English

    cucumber

The story of cucumber

Cucumber comes through earlier English from Anglo-French cucumbre. Behind it is Latin cucumis, whose stem is cucumer-.

Cucumis and cucumer- are a noun and its stem, not two languages or successive borrowings. The source also records Middle English, compressed in these three cards.

Sources

Next: today’s words

Every day, everyone gets the same five words.

Play today’s words