Squash goes back thousands of years, where it was cultivated in Central and South America. After the European’s discovery and subsequent colonisation, the squash found its way to Europe where it became zucchini in Italy and courgette in France. But more on these two words tomorrow.
So it is only logical that the first use in English is in a book published in London in 1642 called A Key into the Language of America. This is an early and very important book about native American languages. Its author Roger William also founded the first Baptist church in America as well as settling Rhode Island. He is literally a father of the United States with descendants including Sarah Palin and Nelson Rockefeller. He describes the origin of the word squash as from the local Indian word “askutasquash”, stating that the English were already using the word squash at this time. He describes them as having the size of apples and being “sweet, light, wholesome, refreshing”.
Other words or phases he introduced in English included New England, trading house, hot house and sectarian.
Over the next 200 hundred years, the word squash was often used in English as a relative of the pumpkin.
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