zucchini the Italian and American name for what the French and many English-speaking people call courgettes, any of several varieties of the squashCucurbita pepo which have been developed for this purpose and are still relatively small (around 8–10 cm/3–4") when mature, or small young specimens of other varieties of the same species which belong to the vegetable marrow group and would grow much larger if left alone.
This is one of the most attractive and delicious of the cucurbit vegetable fruits, but only became prominent in the 20th century. In the 1920s, when the learned Dr Leclerc was writing, the French still referred to courgettes d’Italie, and it seems clear that it was the Italians who first marketed vegetable marrows in a small size; and that it is therefore appropriate to choose their name zucchini rather than the French name courgettes as the adopted English name. The subsequent development of purpose-bred varieties intended to be nothing but zucchini and never growing much larger, has been conducted in several countries.
