gourd

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gourde,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French gurde, the Anglo-Norman form,^[5][6][7][3] beside Old French gourde and coorde,^[8][9][5] and Klein also cites Old French cohourde and courde.^[10] The French word goes back to Latin cucurbita (“gourd, pumpkin”),^{[11][9][8][10]} the source too of cucurbit.^[1][10] The Latin word is of uncertain origin, possibly related to cucumis (“cucumber”),^[8][9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Etymonline think both probably come from a non-Indo-European language.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large fleshy fruit of a climbing plant of the cucumber family: 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,^[11][8] where Barnhart takes it as a melon like a watermelon.^[8] The Anglo-Norman gurde is recorded from 1260–70.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the fruit the word passed to the plant that bears it (about 1400)^[11] and, because the dried and hollowed shell served as a scoop, dipper or bottle, to the vessel itself.^[9][11] Before 1340, in Rolle's Psalter, gourd already meant a bottle or cup of any material, a sense used until the late 16th century;^[11] Chaucer used gourde twice for a flask.^[12] The dried rind used as a water bottle, float or rattle is recorded from 1596, in Raleigh's account of Guiana.^[11] From 1649 the gourd that sheltered Jonah (Jonah 4:6–10) was used allusively.^[11] In 19th-century American slang the word was applied to the head or mind, as in out of one's gourd, recorded from before 1844.^[11]

Timeline

• 1303 – the fruit of a plant of the gourd family.^[11][8]
• before 1340 – a bottle or cup (obsolete by 1582).^[11]
• c. 1400 – the plant that bears the fruit.^[11]
• 1513 – in heraldry, a representation of the fruit.^[11][13]
• 1596 – the dried shell used as a water bottle, float or rattle.^[11][13]
• 1649 – used allusively of Jonah's gourd.^[11]
• before 1844 – US slang, the head or mind.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of a family of mostly climbing or trailing vines that includes the cucumber, melon, squash and pumpkin.^[2][14][11]
2. The hard-shelled fruit of such a plant, especially one such as the bottle gourd grown for its shell rather than for food.^[2][14][11]
3. The dried, hollowed shell of this fruit, used as a bottle, cup, dipper or rattle: They carried water in a gourd.^[14][11]
4. (US slang) The head or mind, now often in out of one's gourd.^[11]
5. (obsolete, before 1340–1582) A bottle or cup of any material.^[11][12]

Word family

• gourdlike
• bitter gourd
• bottle gourd
• dishcloth gourd
• gooseberry gourd
• Missouri gourd
• sour gourd
• wax gourd

Related words

• cucurbit
• cucumber
• calabash

Usage notes

A separate gourd in old gamblers' slang, a kind of loaded or hollowed die, is recorded from 1545 (in Ascham's Toxophilus) to 1616; the OED compares an Old French word for a swindle.^[11][15][13] In Scots, an unrelated adjective gourd meant stiff or hard to move.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)