Timdalf
Active Member
It always pays to consult the Oracle; the OED!
First, the use of "a pickle" meaning "a sorry plight" goes back all the way to 1562.
>>>4. a. A (usually disagreeable) condition or situation; a plight, a predicament. Now colloq.
The exact sense in quot. 1562 is unclear.
1562 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue Prov. & Epigr. sig. Uiii, Man is brickell. Freilties pickell. Poudreth mickell, Seasonyng lickell. 1573 T. TUSSER Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husb. 125 Reape barlie with sickle, that lies in ill pickle. 1585 J. FOXE Serm. 2 Cor. v. 21 In this pickle lyeth man by nature, that is, all wee that be Adams children. a1616 SHAKESPEARE Tempest V. i. 284 Alo. How cam'st thou in this pickle? Tri. I haue bin in such a pickle since I saw you last, That [etc.]. 1658 J. MENNES Wit Restor'd 45 What sad plight are we in? what pickles? That we must drink in conventicles? 1672 H. HERBERT Narr. in Camden Misc. XXX. 323 Their superiours.. were in the same pickle.<<<
Second, as a verb the word means to rub salt of salt and vinegar on the back after a flogging or whipping as a punishment (!!) -- I wonder if this was particularly practised in the British Navy? Now, this doesn't apply here as Sam is using the word in its noun form. but nevertheless....
First, the use of "a pickle" meaning "a sorry plight" goes back all the way to 1562.
>>>4. a. A (usually disagreeable) condition or situation; a plight, a predicament. Now colloq.
The exact sense in quot. 1562 is unclear.
1562 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue Prov. & Epigr. sig. Uiii, Man is brickell. Freilties pickell. Poudreth mickell, Seasonyng lickell. 1573 T. TUSSER Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husb. 125 Reape barlie with sickle, that lies in ill pickle. 1585 J. FOXE Serm. 2 Cor. v. 21 In this pickle lyeth man by nature, that is, all wee that be Adams children. a1616 SHAKESPEARE Tempest V. i. 284 Alo. How cam'st thou in this pickle? Tri. I haue bin in such a pickle since I saw you last, That [etc.]. 1658 J. MENNES Wit Restor'd 45 What sad plight are we in? what pickles? That we must drink in conventicles? 1672 H. HERBERT Narr. in Camden Misc. XXX. 323 Their superiours.. were in the same pickle.<<<
Second, as a verb the word means to rub salt of salt and vinegar on the back after a flogging or whipping as a punishment (!!) -- I wonder if this was particularly practised in the British Navy? Now, this doesn't apply here as Sam is using the word in its noun form. but nevertheless....
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