Etymologically
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pepo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛ.poː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.po][1]

Forms

pepō m (genitive peponis); third declension[1] The Greek nominative pepon also occurs; manuscripts and glosses write popo-, paepo-, pipo- and pemo-.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn, “ripe; melon”),[3][4][1] which was at first an adjective, “ripe”.[2] Isidore of Seville and the glossaries already recognised it as Greek.[2] Beekes explains the Greek adjective as a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, ripen”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD),[6] who says that cucumbers that have grown very large are called pepones.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It named a large kind of melon, the watermelon in the TLL's identification.[2] Diocletian's price edict lists it, Apicius has recipes for pepones et melones, and it appears in medicine and diet.[2] Tertullian mocks a man who has “a melon in place of a heart”, peponem cordis loco.[8] The Vulgate has it among the foods the Israelites remembered,[3] and British Medieval Latin used it for the melon, often with reference to that verse.[9] It survives in Romance, as Tuscan Italian popone and Old Spanish pepon (Spanish pepino).[2] New Latin used it for the pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo.[1]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for very large cucumbers.[2][6]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian speaks of a melon in place of a heart.[8][6]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has it in Numbers 11:5.[3][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville notes its Greek origin.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large melon, especially the watermelon.[3][4][2]
  2. (New Latin) A pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo).[1]
  • mēlopepō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press