pepo

pepo — noun

1. a fruit that grows on plants in the gourd family, such as the pumpkin, melon, or

1.nounC2
Definition

a fruit that grows on plants in the gourd family, such as the pumpkin, melon, or cucumber, with soft flesh, a tough outer skin, and lots of seeds inside.

Example

In her botany class, Élise learned that a watermelon is really a pepo.

naming a fruit type: X is a pepo

Arjun held up a cucumber and a squash, calling each one a pepo.

naming two fruits as the type

Common collocations
  • hard rind
  • fleshy fruit
  • gourd family
Synonyms
  • berry

    broader botanical class; a pepo is one special kind of berry

Usage Note

A technical botany term, mainly seen in textbooks and plant-science writing. Subject is usually a specific gourd-family fruit (pumpkin, melon, cucumber, squash).

2. dried, fully grown pumpkin seeds taken as an old remedy to remove worms, includi

2.nounC2
Definition

dried, fully grown pumpkin seeds taken as an old remedy to remove worms, including tapeworms, from the body.

Example

The old pharmacy still kept a jar of pepo for treating stomach worms.

uncountable, named use against worms

In the village clinic, Dr. Tuan gave a sick child pepo to clear out tapeworms.

named clinic scene, medicinal use

Common collocations
  • dried seeds
  • expel worms
Synonyms
  • anthelmintic

    general term for any worm-removing medicine; pepo is one folk example

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense is the seed-based remedy, not the whole fruit. Almost always uncountable and tied to traditional or historical medicine.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

In everyday speech these words overlap, but botany keeps them apart. A 'berry' is the wide scientific group of fruits that form from one flower and hold their seeds in soft flesh — grapes and tomatoes count, even though shoppers rarely call them berries. A 'pepo' is one special branch of that group: a berry with a hard, protective outer skin, belonging to the gourd family — think pumpkin, melon, or cucumber. A 'gourd' usually points to the plant or its often-dried, decorative hard-shelled fruit, and is the family name the pepo belongs to. So every pepo is a berry, and every pepo comes from a gourd-family plant, but not every berry is a pepo. Use 'pepo' only in plant-science contexts: 'A cucumber is a pepo' is precise; in a shop you would just say 'a cucumber'.

pepo ↗berry ↗gourd ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • gourd family
  • hard rind
  • pumpkin seeds

Phrases

  • a type of berry
  • the characteristic fruit of the gourd family

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

English borrowed 'pepo' straight from Latin, where it meant a large melon or pumpkin. The Romans in turn took it from Greek 'pepon', meaning 'ripe', from a verb for ripening in the sun — the idea being a gourd left on the vine until fully ripe. The same Greek root, through Latin and French, also gave English the word 'pumpkin'.

First known use

1849

1849, in the meaning defined above