1875: pumpkin and melon Feb 2, 2020

'Melon' comes from the 'Greek for 'apple', but so does 'pumpkin'. However, while 'mēlon' in Greek could refer to generic fruit—just as apple used to for English— 'mēlopepon' meant 'gourd-apple', and connoted gourds more than fruits. Hence, the Greek 'pepon' ('gourd') led to the English 'pumpkin'. There is an etymological root as well between 'pepon' and 'peptein', meaning 'to cook' but also 'to ripen', with the idea being that the fruit is cooked, or otherwise prepared by the Sun.
Support Word Facts on patreon.com/wordfacts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1511: "I'll be home in 3 days; don't wash" Might be False Jan 31, 2019

852: delilah Apr 8, 2017

Important Announcement: Blogspot Access Will Close