Sour cucumber season
Sour cucumber time (also sour cucumber time ) is a proverbial expression that has been in use since the late 18th century . The term originally referred to a time when there was little food; Similar expressions are the English "season of the very smallest potatoes" ("season of the smallest potatoes") and "cucumber time" (" cucumber time ").
Today, business people jokingly call it the time of midsummer , when most people go on vacation and therefore there is quiet business time. Since little happened in politics and cultural life at this time, the term was adopted from journalism to designate the news-poor weeks of summer, when the pages of the newspapers are filled more often than usual with incidental and curious reports (so the usage is similar to that of the " summer hole ").
Origin of the term
The motif and origin of the expression, first documented from Berlin , are unclear. A folk etymological explanation connects it with the late summer offer of freshly pickled pickles from the Spreewald, which falls during the holiday season . After Salcia Landmann but it has nothing to do with pickles, but is a - possibly via the Rotwelsch mediated - corruption of the Yiddish Zóres- and Jókresszeit (of Hebrew zarót and jakrút ; Yiddish zoro and joker ), the "time of need and Price increase ".
"[...]" Yes, if it weren't for Bonaparte! "-" 'ne sappermente economy! "-" Well, we'll see. "-" And the beer is getting worse and worse. "-" Sour cucumber season, Mr. godfather! " [...] "
Use in Hungarian
The Hungarian language also knows this term as uborkaszezon (cucumber season). The Magyarized form of the word season suggests that this compound in its current form may have originated in the 19th century. However, the customs behind it are older. The term is used analogously to the German language in the figurative sense as well as in the literal sense. It is the time at the beginning of summer when the salty “summer cucumbers ” (Hungarian kovászos uborka ) are pickled. The name comes from the Hungarian word for sourdough ( Kovász ); Because, unlike the “winter cucumbers”, these cucumbers are not pickled in vinegar and are not preserved by heating, but owe their salty-sour taste to a brief lactic acid fermentation . The cucumbers are simply put in salted water with spices and fermented with the help of a slice of bread by placing the jars covered on the windowsill or on the wall of the arcade or on the terrace.
literature
- Friedrich Kluge: Word research and word history , Leipzig 1912, page 115f
- Norbert Nail: Zores in the Sauregurkenzeit , in: Der Sprachdienst 27/1983, page 105
- Christoph Gutknecht: From Staircases to Sauregurkenzeit - The craziest words in German , Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56833-6
Web links
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b Kluge, Etymological Dictionary of the German Language , edited by Elmar Sebold, 23rd expanded edition, Verlag Walter de Gruyter , Berlin / New York 1995, page 707
- ↑ Clear Röhrich: He sees the origin from the Rotwelschen as proven. see. Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, Volume 2, Page 599, Lemma Gurke
- ↑ Willibald Alexis : Rest is the first civil duty or Fifty Years Ago , Roman, 1852