[puhmp-kin or, commonly, puhng-kin] Pronunciation Key | 1. | a large, edible, orange-yellow fruit borne by a coarse, decumbent vine, Cucurbita pepo, of the gourd family. |
| 2. | the similar fruit of any of several related species, as C. maxima or C. moschata. |
| 3. | a plant bearing such fruit. |
] Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
| pump·kin
(pŭmp'kĭn, pŭm'-, pŭng'-) Pronunciation Key
n.
[Alteration (influenced by -kin) of obsolete pumpion, from obsolete French pompon, popon, from Old French pepon, from Late Latin pepōn, from Latin, watermelon or gourd, from Greek, ripe, large melon; see pekw- in Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
pumpkin
| pumpkin | |
noun | |
| 1. | 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 |
| 2. | usually large pulpy deep-yellow round fruit of the squash family maturing in late summer or early autumn |
pumpkin jargon
A humourous term for the token - the object (notional or real) that gives its possessor (the "pumpking" or the "pumpkineer") exclusive access to something, e.g. applying patches to a master copy of source (for which the pumpkin is called a "patch pumpkin").
Chip Salzenberg
David Croy once told me once that at a previous job, there was one tape drive and multiple systems that used it for backups. But instead of some high-tech exclusion software, they used a low-tech method to prevent multiple simultaneous backups: a stuffed pumpkin. No one was allowed to make backups unless they had the "backup pumpkin".
(1999-02-23)
Pumpkin Center, NC (CDP, FIPS 54160) Location: 34.78039 N, 77.36656 W
Population (1990): 2857 (955 housing units)
Area: 5.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Pumpkin
Pump"kin\, n. [For older pompion, pompon, OF. pompon, L. pepo, peponis, Gr. ?, properly, cooked by the sun, ripe, mellow; -- so called because not eaten till ripe. Cf. Cook, n.] (Bot.) A well-known trailing plant (Cucurbita pepo) and its fruit, -- used for cooking and for feeding stock; a pompion. Pumpkin seed. (a) The flattish oval seed of the pumpkin. (b) (Zo["o]l.) The common pondfish.
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