a variety of melon, Cucumis melo cantalupensis, of the gourd family, having a hard scaly or warty rind, grown in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
2.
a muskmelon having a reticulated rind and pale-orange flesh.
Also, can·ta·loup.
Origin: 1730–40; < French, allegedly after Cantaluppi, a papal estate near Rome where cultivation of this melon is said to have begun in Europe, though a comparable It word is not attested until much later than the French word, and Cantaloup, a village in Languedoc, has also been proposed as the source
1739, from It. Cantalupo, former Papal summer estate, near Rome, where the melons were first grown in Europe after their introduction, supposedly from Armenia.