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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)  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! (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! 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!  Please show more respect. 
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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 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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veteran
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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?
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