The English ‘gherkin’,  related to the German ‘Gurke’ meaning both cucumber and gherkin refers to cucumbers though the actual gherkin is a long rough skinned type of cucumber.  (Toussaint-Samat, pp. 529).  The cucumber is very period with seeds carbon dated from 9750 B.C. from Egypt.  (Staub, pp. 212)

The ways to eat the cucumber seems to range from drinking the squeezed pulp, cooked, eaten green or eaten raw with a little salt.   Another rather interesting way to drink a cucumber was to cut the top of a ripe cucumber off, stir the innards and let sit upright for a few days.  Now personally, I’m not so sure about this but I do come from the coke generation.  My drinks were made carbonated and sugared.  If this were not the case, I am sure I would find stirred cucumber innards rather tasty too!  The cucumber was considered a very versatile vegetable for both the edible and drinkable atributes and not just by one culture!