pumpkin
Meanings
Plural: pumpkins
Noun
- a coarse vine widely cultivated for its large pulpy round orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds; subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes and a few autumn squashes
- usually large pulpy deep-yellow round fruit of the squash family maturing in late summer or early autumn
- A domesticated plant, in species Cucurbita pepo, similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
- The round yellow or orange fruit of this plant.
- The typical color of the ripe fruit of the pumpkin plant.
- Any of a number of cultivars from the genus Cucurbita; known in the US as winter squash.
- A term of endearment for someone small and cute.
- The housing for a differential, built into an axle of a vehicle; the housing and its contents.
Origin / Etymology
Alteration of pompion, pumpion (“pumpkin”) with the diminutive -kin, from Middle French pompon, from Latin pepō (whence English pepo), from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn, “large melon”), from πέπων (pépōn, “ripe”), from πέπτω (péptō, “ripen”).
The alternative theory that it may be from Massachusett pôhpukun (“grows forth round”) is false.
The automotive sense is by fancied resemblance.
Synonyms
autumn pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo, pumpkin vine
Scrabble Score: 17
pumpkin is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordpumpkin is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pumpkin is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary