Etymologically
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watermelon

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈwɔːtəˌmɛlən/[1]
  • US: /ˈwɑtəɹˌmɛlən/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English water + melon,[2][3][4][5] because the fruit is full of watery juice.[2][3] Etymonline compares French melon d'eau.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large edible fruit of a trailing gourd plant, with a green rind and sweet, very juicy flesh: 1598, in John Florio's Italian–English dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s[3] and Merriam-Webster to 1615.[7]

Semantic evolution

The name covers both the fruit and the plant that bears it, a native of Africa grown widely in warm regions.[4][7][8] Etymonline notes that the sweet variety goes back to Roman times, that it was a garden plant in Europe by the 17th century, and that Spanish colonists had brought it to the New World by the 1570s.[3] Johnson (1755) described it, after Miller, as a trailing plant like the cucumber or melon, set apart by its deeply cut leaf.[9] Merriam-Webster also records the word as the name of a deep pink to red colour.[7]

Timeline

  • 1598 – the fruit of the gourd plant Citrullus lanatus.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The large round or oblong fruit of an African vine, with a hard green, often striped rind and sweet, watery red or yellowish pulp full of seeds: They shared a slice of watermelon on the porch.[7][8][2]
  2. The trailing plant that bears this fruit, Citrullus lanatus.[4][8][7]
  3. A deep pink to moderate red colour.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.