In the English nursery rhyme, is Peter Peter’s “pumpkin” the big North American orange squash, or did that word refer to some other melon grown in England back in the day?
Do other large squashes get big enough to hide your wife’s body in them? I’ve seen huge pumpkins that would serve the purpose, but can’t recall seeing any squashes (or melons) that would be large enough to suit that purpose.
Since the poem dates from 1797 I’d think that the Europeans would have been familiar with American pumpkins.
The Cinderalla story dates back even further (1597?), but the original story did not have a pumpkin carriage. Looks like the first story with a pumpkin was published in 1697, so by then Europeans were familiar with the American pumpkin.
OK, I guess the rhyme is recent enough that it’s not surprising it would reference an American import crop. I wondered because names for plants and animals aren’t always used consistently across the pond. I thought there might have been some native European “pumpkin” referenced in the rhyme, and the name later came to be applied to the American plant.
Probably not, but shoes generally aren’t big enough to serve as housing, either, and that didn’t stop that Old Lady.
Even in modern America, most pumpkin-eating isn’t of the big orange gourd. There are smaller squashes that are also called pumpkins, which don’t look like much but are tastier for pies and such.
Aside: Most of the edible squashes, including pumpkins and zucchini, are all the same species. So maybe it doesn’t matter much precisely which varietal we’re talking about.
What It’s Really About: Murder.
The wife that “couldn’t be kept” in this rhyme, which the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes notes first appeared in the 1790s, didn’t keep running away or anything — rather, she was supposedly a prostitute. Some historians believe that Peter the pumpkin-eater tired of his wife’s extra-curricular activities, then murdered her and hid her body in a pumpkin. An even more outrageous interpretation of Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater’s meaning is that it’s about the 13th century English King John, who famously bricked a rebellious noble’s wife into a wall to starve to death.
There’s nothing called a pumpkin in Britain that predates the name as it applies to cucurbits.
Jack-o-lanterns, prior to the introduction of pumpkins, were apparently carved from large turnips.
And still are. Best thing to do with them, IMO.