Was “cowcumber” really a word?
Cucumbers used to be called “cowcumbers”. Via
I had to verify this one myself with my favourite source, Etymonline:
Cowcumber was the common form of the word in 17c.-18c., in good literary use and representing the modern evolution of the Middle English form. Cucumber is an attempted reversion to Latin. In 1790s the pronunciation "cowcumber" was standard except in western England dialects and "coocumber" was considered pedantic, but 30 years later, with the spread of literacy and education "cowcumber" was limited to the ignorant and old-fashioned.
An earlier part of that entry caught my eye: “Replaced Old English eorþæppla (plural), literally "earth-apples.”
Interesting that eorþæppla in Old English was cucumber and in Dutch a similar word, aardappel, stuck around and means “potato.”
Wiktionary traces the cognates of aardapple here where you can see that many languages referred to edible fruits and vegetables on or in the ground as an “earth apple.”