pumpkin

pumpkin common name for the genus Cucurbita of the family Cucurbitaceae ( gourd family), a group that includes the pumpkins and squashes—the names may be used interchangeably and without botanical distinction. C. pepo, a species that includes varieties of pumpkin, vegetable marrow (a common European vegetable), and summer squash, has been cultivated so long that its wild form no longer exists and its place of origin is uncertain. If it is native to Asia it was introduced to America in prehistoric times; squashes, corn, and lima beans were the chief crops cultivated by pre-Columbian Native Americans. The pumpkin was among the fruits of the first Thanksgiving celebration of the Pilgrims; it has been a favorite pie filling for autumn festivities ever since, and its shell is carved into the Halloween jack-o'-lantern. The summer squashes include the pattypan, acorn, scallop, and summer crookneck squashes. Other squashes are varieties of C. moschata, including the crookneck squashes and the cheese pumpkin, and C. maxima, the winter squashes (e.g., the Hubbard and turban squashes), called pumpkins in Europe. Pumpkins are classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida, order Violales, family Cucurbitaceae.

pumpkin Orange, hard-rinded, edible garden fruit of a trailing annual vine found in warm regions of the Old World and the USA; a variety of Cucurbita pepo. In the USA, the pumpkin is also called a squash, especially the winter pumpkin (or squash) Cucurbita maxima and C. moschata. Family Cucurbitaceae.

pumpkin in the fairy-story of Cinderella, the golden coach provided by the fairy godmother was a transformed pumpkin, which on the stroke of midnight would turn back into the fruit.

It is traditional at Hallow'een to make a lantern from a hollowed-out pumpkin with holes cut for eyes, nose, and mouth so that it resembles a face.
pumpkin papers a name given to microfilm records of classified documents found in 1948 in a hollowed-out pumpkin on a farm in Maryland which belonged to the journalist Whittaker Chambers; Chambers alleged that they had been given to him by Alger Hiss, and the revelation played an important part in Hiss's trial and eventual conviction.
pumpkin pie traditionally eaten on Thanksgiving day in the US and Canada.