"Headlines about the arrival of pumpkin spice lattes signal summer's end. And soon after the last bites of pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table, we turn to plans for winter holidays. In between, jack-o'-lanterns are the stars of Halloween. The seasonal gourds also evoke a romanticized ideal of simpler times, according to Cindy Ott, author of Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon."
"'Pumpkin itself isn't exactly a botanical group,' says Logan Kistler, curator of archaeobotany and archaeogenomics at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. 'It's more describing the shape of any kind of squash that people have bred to look like what we think of as pumpkins.' The word 'pumpkin' itself began with the Greek word pepon and evolved into the French pompon, according to Fiona McPherson, an executive editor with the Oxford English Dictionary."
Pumpkins mark the transition into autumn and frame holidays from Halloween jack-o'-lanterns to Thanksgiving pie and winter planning. Seasonal pumpkin products, including pumpkin spice lattes, reflect popular attachments to nostalgic images of small family farms and simpler times. The term 'pumpkin' often refers to a cultivated squash shape rather than a strict botanical group. Cultivars have been bred to fit the pumpkin form. The word traces from Greek pepon to French pompon and English pompion, with 'pumpkin' appearing in English usage by the 17th century and the plant itself originating in the Americas with millennia of history.
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