[puhmp-kin or, commonly, puhng-kin] 
| 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. |
| pump·kin (pŭmp'kĭn, pŭm'-, pŭng'-) 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.] |
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)