A variant or dialectal spelling of gherkin; a small pickled cucumber.
Variant spelling of gherkin, from Dutch augurk, from Sanskrit augara. Gerkin appears in older English texts as an alternative pronunciation-based spelling.
This is a spelling variant that shows how English borrowed 'gherkin' from Dutch traders, but different regions pronounced and spelled it differently — 'gerkin' lost out to 'gherkin,' but both route back to Sanskrit and the Silk Road spice trade.
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