Pickled means preserved in sour liquid. Pickled onions, pickled herring, pickled in vinegar.
The acid is what preserves: below about pH four and a half, the bacteria that spoil food cannot grow. Some pickles are soured by fermentation rather than by added vinegar, and those taste quite different. In British slang, pickled means drunk.
1adjectivepickledPreserved in sour liquid.
“She served cold meat with pickled onions and crusty bread.”
pickled is a preserving method.
Middle Low German
pekel — brine
Middle English
pikel — spicy sauce served with meat or fish
English
pickle
English, today
pickled
pickle comes from Middle English pikel (“spicy sauce served with meat or fish”), borrowed from Middle Dutch -, Middle Low German pekel (“brine”). Cognate with Scots pikkill (“salt liquor, brine”), stq Piekele (“pickle, brine”), Dutch pekel (“pickle, brine”), Low German pekel, peckel, pickel, bickel (“pickle, brine”), German Pökel (“pickle, brine”), Icelandic pækill (“brine”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA