Cantaloupe and muskmelon

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 01:12 PM 8/3/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Yesterday while grocery shopping I asked the produce manager the price
>of cantaloupe.  She responded, "Do you mean those muskmelons or the
>cantaloupe over there?"  After I got the price, I asked her what the
>difference was between the.  She said that she thought they were the
>same but that the produce department made a distinction between the
>smaller rough-skinned cantaloupe and the larger, Indiana-grown melon
>that has natural seams.
>
>The RHD distinguishes cantaloupe as the specific Armenian variety of
>Cucumis Melo first grown at the papal estate at Cantelupo, near Rome.
>Muskmelons are also Cucumis Melo, but several different varieties.
>
>As a child, I got the impression, or perhaps was taught, I'm not sure
>which, that cantaloupe was a formal, "proper" name for what was
>colloquially called muskmelon.  Some people in SE Michigan also called
>them all "mushmelon".
>
>What distinctions do you find between the two terms among people who are
>not produce managers, gardeners, or botanists?
>
>Herb Stahlke

Funny you should ask--my brother asked me this very question when I was
visiting in Minnesota last week.  As kids we always said 'muskmelon', but I
think I felt the "proper" term was 'cantaloupe' as I grew up and moved
away, while he did not.  Our sense is that they refer to the same fruit
(vegetable?).  The two dept. secretaries here in southern Ohio differed,
however.  The older uses both terms (and hears 'mushmelon' among still
older people, as I do here but did not in Minnesota), while the younger one
only uses 'cantaloupe' and claims not to know the term 'muskmelon' at all
(a dubious claim, I suspect).  I've never heard of a texture-based
difference; that does indeed sound like a commercially made up distinction.

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm