Pump"kin (?), n. [For older pompion, pompon, OF. pompon, L. pepo, peponis, Gr. &?;, properly, cooked by the sun, ripe, mellow; -- so called because not eaten till ripe. Cf. Cook, n.] (Bot.) A well-known trailing plant (Cucurbita pepo) and its fruit, -- used for cooking and for feeding stock; a pompion.

Alternative forms
• Punkin (pronounced as it is spelled). An alternative American form. James Whitcomb Riley, poem "When the Frost is on the Punkin"
  
• A domesticated plant, Cucurbita pepo similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
  
• The round yellow or orange fruit of the pumpkin plant. L. Frank Baum, The Land of Oz "There were pumpkins in Mombi's corn-fields, lying golden red among the rows of green stalks; and these had been planted and carefully tended that the four-horned cow might eat of them in the winter time."
  
• The color pumpkin, more or less the same as the color of the fruit of the pumpkin plant, for purposes of browser display: #FF8127.
  
• A term of endearment for the small and cute, often expressed in the alternate U.S. form and pronunciation, punkin. "You must be daddy's little pumpkin," song by John Prine.