From ‘Pepon’ to Pumpkin: A Sun-Cooked Word’s Journey

A word that travelled as far as the fruit itself. From Greek ‘pepon’, meaning ‘cooked by the sun’, to Latin ‘pepo’ and French ‘pompon’, ‘pumpkin’ carried the idea of a ripened gourd across languages and oceans. English settlers used it for the bright orange fruits they found in the Americas, and it stayed. Today’s European names still echo those old roots: French ‘citrouille’, Italian ‘zucca’, Spanish ‘calabaza’, German ‘Kürbis’. One family of words, many shades of autumn.