Cantaloupe

The name cantaloupe was derived in the 18th century via French cantaloup from The Cantus Region of Italian Cantalupo, which was formerly a papal county seat near Rome, after the fruit was introduced there from Armenia.^[3] It was first mentioned in English literature in 1739.^[2] The cantaloupe most likely originated in a region from South Asia to Africa.^[2] It was later introduced to Europe, and around 1890, became a commercial crop in the United States.^[2]

Melon derived from use in Old French as meloun during the 13th century, and from Medieval Latin melonem, a kind of pumpkin.^[4] It was among the first plants to be domesticated and cultivated.^[4]

The South African English name spanspek is said to be derived from Afrikaans Spaanse spek (‘Spanish bacon’); supposedly, Sir Harry Smith, a 19th-century governor of Cape Colony, ate bacon and eggs for breakfast, while his Spanish-born wife Juana María de los Dolores de León Smith preferred cantaloupe, so South Africans nicknamed the eponymous fruit Spanish bacon.^[5][6] However, the name appears to predate the Smiths and date to 18th-century Dutch Suriname: J. van Donselaar wrote in 1770, “Spaansch-spek is the name for the form that grows in Suriname which, because of its thick skin and little flesh, is less consumed.”^[7]