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some pumpkins: (dedicated to the one-year anniversary celebration of one milum, since this phrase may have survived in some places as something of a Southernism...and is apt to the gentleman in question) ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif) Here, now, belatedly, is the second installment of my "Bring "Em Back Alive!" series of obsolete (or semi-obsolete) 19th Century words and phrases I am on a mission to revive in usage, 'cause I like 'em! This now takes its place next to absquatulate and kerfuffle (thank ya kindly, sjm) in the Resurrectionist Lexicon! ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif) (Rhuby, are you with me on this one?) And since there's also a Kentucky connection here, one can't help but see how it was tailor-made for a certain friend...'cause, that Jackie, she's some pumpkins! ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif) from The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800's by Marc McCutcheon: some pumpkins: someone or something impressive 1846: One of them thinks he's got a scrub [horse] that's some pumpkins. --A Quarter Race in Kentucky, p. 1181851: We went on until the third or fourth set, and I thought I was some pumpkins at dancing. --An Arkansas Doctor, p. 971853: "Got a smart chunk of pony thar." "Yes, Sir, he is some pumpkins sure; offered ten cows and claves for him; he's death on a quarter." -- Paxton, A Stray Yankee in Texas, p.44
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O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The Pumpkinification of milum!!
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O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The Pumpkinification of milum!!Hey, hey, tsuwm...this is Q&A. I know I laced my post with some humor, but this is a serious word post...just like absquatulate and kerfuffle! ![](/board/images/icons/wink.gif) Please show more respect. ![](/board/images/icons/tongue.gif)
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but juan, my post too was only *laced with humor -- pumpkinification is a serious word, coined by Robert *Graves no less. (whereas 'some pumpkins' is merely a phrase..)
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but juan, my post too was only *laced with humor -- pumpkinification is a serious word, coined by Robert *Graves no less. (whereas 'some pumpkins' is merely a phrase..)Hmmmm. I'd say that makes it a pretty grave word then...okay, we're back on track here...just wanted to make sure we weren't undergoing the tsuwmification of something special, here. ![](/board/images/icons/wink.gif)
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![](/board/images/icons/blush.gif) ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif) Thank you, Dearest. Maybe the phrase originated because of pumpkin-growing contests?
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Maybe the phrase originated because of pumpkin-growing contests?
Seems we have a real mystery here, folks...I searched Quinion, Bartleby, The Phrase Finder, and OneLook for some pumpkins...nada! Usually there's some citation of a known phrase. And I know I've heard it years before I encountered it in my 19th Century historical interpretation studies. Jackie's offering seems a likely source. Anyone have a clue to the origin for this one? And why no dictionary listings?
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coined by Robert *Graves no lessGraves? I don't think so. B&M OED gives 1856 for the first citation. It's a translation of Seneca's word apocolocyntosis from his tribute to the god Claudius upon his death, APOCOLOCYNTOSIS DIVI CLAVDII. And *he got it from the Greek apokolokyntosis, transformation into a pumpkin. Ain't *that some pumpkins! http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen.apoc.html
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from the Greek apokolokyntosis, transformation into a pumpkin
Wow.
But what would the word be for a Cinderellesque transformation from a pumpkin?
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But what would the word be for a Cinderellesque transformation from a pumpkin?Depumpkination? ![](/board/images/icons/smile.gif)
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