Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

pumpking

/ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: pump-king
IPA: /ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/

19

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.

Slang

Example Sentences

"In addition, various people are pumpkings for different areas. For example, Andy Dougherty and Jarkko Hietaniemi share the Configure pumpkin, and Tom Christiansen is the documentation pumpking."
"Releases are coordinated by a ‘patch pumpkin holder’, or ‘pumpking’ – a quality controller who, with help from Larry [Wall], decides which contributions make the grade and when and bears the heavy responsibility of releasing a new Perl."
"Each release of Perl is assigned a "pumpking." This person controls all changes to the actual source code of the language itself. The pumpking for 5.6 was Gurusamy Sarathy, and the pumpking for 5.8 is Jarkko Hietaniemi."
"Thanks to Doug Miles, the Phoenix Perl Mongers Pumpking, for his tireless dedication to the Phoenix Perl community, which he brought together. Writing Perl in the valley would be a lot lonelier without his hard work."

Etymology

Blend of pumpkin + king, anecdotally from the use of a stuffed pumpkin toy that was handed between employees as a token of permission to make changes, ensuring that only one person could make changes at any particular time.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/
British English: /ˈpʌm(p)kɪŋ/

Usage

Slang

Inflected Forms

pumpkings (plural)

Questions

How do you pronounce pumpking?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/.
What does pumpking mean?: A Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.
Where does pumpking come from?: Blend of pumpkin + king, anecdotally from the use of a stuffed pumpkin toy that was handed between employees as a token of permission to make changes, ensuring that only one person could make changes at any particular time.

How to pronounce pumpking

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “pumpking”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “pumpking”.
Repeat and practice — Say “pumpking” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.