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popone

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word popone

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1288 register of the Servite convent of Santissima Annunziata, Florence More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin pepo
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πέπων
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn)
Latin pepō
Italian popone
The word's journey
From the same root
Ancient Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopépōn) ← πέπων

Forms

popone m (plural poponi)[1] Old forms include Old Italian peponi, Old Italian poppone and Old Italian pupone.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pepōnem, the accusative of the Latin word, through a Vulgar Latin form with a long vowel in the ending.[4][5][6] DELI and Nocentini write that form *pepōnem.[4][5] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Gabrielli give *popōnem, with the first vowel made like the second.[7][8][9][10] Beside the usual stem, the glosses also give the Latin word a genitive with the stem ⟨pepin-⟩.[11]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn), an adjective meaning “cooked by the sun, ripe” and then “sweet”.[4][5] It comes from the root of πέσσω (péssō, “to cook; to ripen”), an Indo-European root meaning “to cook”.[5][4][1] Nocentini explains the noun as short for a phrase with σίκυος (síkyos, “cucumber”), “sweet cucumber”.[5]

DEI compares Old French popon, Spanish pepino and Portuguese pepino, and Romanian pepene.[11] The Latin word was borrowed as German Pfebe.[5][11] Körting mentions, with a question mark, a proposal by Cohn deriving the Italian word from a Latin *pulpo (“fleshy fruit”).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a register of the Servite convent of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, in 1288, for the melon.[4] The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1289.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word was common in Old Tuscan: toll lists from San Gimignano and Siena tax loads of poponi, and the Italian Marco Polo says a place has “the best melons in the world” (li migliori poponi del mondo).[3] Boccaccio compares a woman's appetite with the bellyfuls of figs, cherries or poponi that peasants eat.[3][13]

The word stayed Tuscan, and DELI quotes Alessandro Tassoni, who criticised the Crusca dictionary: “why moccichino, popone, if all Italy says fazzoletto, melone?”[4] Today it is a regional name for the melone.[7][8][6]

Figurative senses grew out of the shape and colour of the fruit: a hump, avere il popone, a fool, testa di popone, and a sickly yellow complexion, giallo come un popone.[7][8][14] Popone d'acqua is a regional name for the cocomero.[14] German had Pupoen from the 14th century.[15]

Timeline

  • 1288 – The register of Santissima Annunziata in Florence has the first record.[4]
  • 1289 – A Florentine document has the word.[2][5]
  • 14th century – German Pupoen is recorded.[15]
  • 15th century – Luigi Pulci uses the diminutive poponcino.[11][5]
  • 1751 – Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti uses poponaia, a melon field.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (regional, Tuscany) melon, the plant and its fruit.[7][8][6][1]
  2. (figurative, jocular) A hump on the back: avere il popone.[7][8]
  3. (figurative) A silly, useless person; a babbeo: testa di popone.[7][8][16]

Word family

  • poponcino
  • poponaia
  • poponaio
  • poponella

Usage notes

Outside Tuscany the usual word is melone.[14][4] Giallo come un popone describes someone with a yellowish face.[7][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3018
  12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Popone.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/popone. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

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