zucchini
Pluralzucchinis, zucchini
- 1The long, green-skinned edible fruit of the Cucurbita pepo squash, eaten as a vegetable.
She stuffed each zucchini with rice and baked them until tender.
The recipe called for two zucchini, grated and squeezed dry.
Similarcourgette
Note
Counting the vegetables is where the Italian origin shows. Both two zucchinis and two zucchini are standard English plurals, and the second keeps the form the word arrived in. Because the plant's name was already a plural in Italian, it can stay unchanged like sheep, or take -s like any other count noun. Either is safe, but keep to one within a single text.
- 2A variety of summer squash, Cucurbita pepo, grown for its edible green fruit.
The zucchini in our garden produced more fruit than we could eat.
Zucchini thrives in warm soil and full sun.
Similarcourgette
Note
An Italian plural doing duty as an English singular: in Italian, zucchini is the plural of zucchino, a diminutive of zucca, 'squash'. The name belongs to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, and courgette names the same plant. The two words are cousins, both descending from Latin cucurbita. Choose by audience, since a recipe written for one market reads oddly in the other.
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Origin
Borrowed from Italian zucchini, the plural of zucchino, a diminutive of zucca ("squash"). It is ultimately related to "courgette" through the original Latin cucurbita.