pumpkin

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpʌmpkɪn/ (UK); /ˈpʌm(p).kɪn/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

An alteration, with the ending -kin, of earlier pumpion or pompone (1540s),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} perhaps because the -on was taken to be a diminutive, as it is in French.^[2] That word is borrowed from Middle French pompon (“melon, pumpkin”),^[3][2][6][1] a nasalized form of popon,^[6] from Latin pepo (“melon”), from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn, “large melon”).^{[4][5][6][3][2]} The Greek name meant “ripe”, in the sense “cooked by the sun”, from péptein “to cook, ripen”,^[2][3][5] from the Proto-Indo-European root *pekʷ- “to cook”.^[4][2] Wiktionary calls false the theory that the word comes from Massachusett pôhpukun “grows forth round”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large round fruit of a trailing vine native to North America, first recorded as pumpkin in 1647.^[7][3][1][2] Merriam-Webster gives 1654.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In 19th-century American speech the word was used both for a stupid, self-important person (1830) and, in some pumpkins, for a person or thing of importance (1846).^[7][2] It is used as an endearment, especially for children, from 1942.^[7] The vulgar spelling punkin is attested by 1806 according to Etymonline, and from 1825 according to Barnhart.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1540s – pompone, pumpion, “melon, gourd”.^[2][3]
• 1647 – pumpkin.^[7][3][1]
• 1650s – pumpkin pie.^[2]
• 1806 – the spelling punkin.^[2]
• 1846 – some pumpkins, “a person of importance”.^[7]
• 1942 – an endearment.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The large, round, orange fruit of a trailing vine of the gourd family, eaten as a vegetable or in pies.
2. The vine that bears this fruit.
3. A strong orange colour.
4. A term of endearment.

Word family

• pumpkinseed
• punkin
• pumpkin head

Related words

• pepo
• cook
• peptic
• squash
• jack-o'-lantern

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press