gourd fruit, 1640s, shortened borrowing from Narraganset (Algonquian) askutasquash, literally "the things that may be eaten raw," from askut "green, raw, uncooked" + asquash "eaten," in which the -ash is a plural affix (compare succotash).
c. 1300, "plant which bears the grapes from which wine is made," from Old French vigne "vine, vineyard" (12c.), from Latin vinea "vine, vineyard," from vinum "wine," from PIE *win-o- "wine," an Italic noun related to words for "wine" in Greek, Armenian, Hittite, and non-Indo-European Georgian and West Semitic (Hebrew yayin, Ethiopian wayn); probably ultimately from a lost Mediterranean language word *w(o)in- "wine."
From late 14c. in reference to any plant with a long slender stem that trails or winds around. The European grape vine was imported to California via Mexico by priests in 1564.
1610s, "act of squashing," from squash (v.). The racket game called by that name 1899; earlier (1886) it was the name of the soft rubber ball used in it.
1915 in English cookery books, 1910 in travel books about Italy as an Italian word (defined as "an odd kind of little squash, very tender and palatable"), from Italian, plural of zucchino, diminutive of zucca "gourd, squash," perhaps from Late Latin cucutia, which is of unknown origin.
1640s, probably a variant of squash (v.), perhaps by influence of obsolete squiss "to squeeze or crush" (1550s). Related: Squished; squishing.
1778, "carangoid fish of the West Indies and South Atlantic," highly esteemed for food, from American Spanish pampano, a name given to various types of fish, from Spanish, originally "vine, tendril," from Latin pampinus "tendril or leaf of a vine." In California, used of a different fish abundant in summer along the coast and also highly esteemed for food.
type of tropical woody vine, 1849, named for French navigator Louis Bougainville (1729-1811).
