Roger Williams (he who settled Rhode Island) called squash “vine apples,” and described them as being about the size of apples, and as quite tasty.
From this it can be inferred that the gourds which the Narragansett Indians called asquutasquash were a sort of melon, especially since the Indian word, literally translated, means “that which is eaten raw.”
But it is the abbreviation of that same Indian word that gives us squash, which, as we know it, is rarely eaten raw.
An earlier, now obsolete form was squantersquash.
