---
name: "Cucumbers Were Once Called 'Cowcumbers'"
subtitle: "An archaic English name for cucumbers, still used in some 18th-century texts"
date: 2026-05-20
link: https://historyfacts.com/world-history/fact/cucumbers-used-to-be-called-cowcumbers/
linkText: "historyfacts.com"
source: "Kottke.org"
topics: [words-and-humor, history-and-archives]
tags: [language, etymology, history]
description: "'Cowcumber' was the standard English pronunciation of 'cucumber' through the 18th century — a folk etymology that lasted long enough to outlive most native English vegetable names."
---

"Cowcumber" was the standard English pronunciation of "cucumber" through the 18th century, retained in lower-class speech into the 19th. The folk etymology comes from a misreading of the Latin *cucumis* mixed with the assumption that the long fruit must be related to cattle somehow. Surfaced via Kottke.