Word.ws English Dictionary

pumpking

Syllables: pump·kingUK/ˈpʌm(p)kɪŋ/US/ˈpʌm(p)ˌkɪŋ/

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

Noun

pumpking (plural pumpkings)

  1. (slang) A Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.
    • 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.1999 winter, Nathan Torkington, “Hacking the Perl Core”, in The Perl Journal, volume 4, number 4 (number 16 overall), Boston, Mass.: Readable Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
    • 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.2000, Simon Cozens, with Peter Wainwright, Beginning Perl, Birmingham, West Midlands: Wrox Press, →ISBN, page 24

Examples of pumpking in a sentence

  • Each release of Perl is assigned a "pumpking." This person controls all changes to the actual source code of the language itself.2002, Clinton Pierce, “Basic Perl”, in Charlotte Clapp, editor, Perl Developer’s Dictionary, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams Publishing, →ISBN...
  • Thanks to Doug Miles, the Phoenix Perl Mongers Pumpking, for his tireless dedication to the Phoenix Perl community, which he brought together.2005, Scott Walters, Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 (Expert’s Voice in Open Source), Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →ISBN...

Forms of pumpking

pluralpumpkings

Origin of pumpking

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.

Questions about pumpking

What does pumpking mean?
Pumpking means a Perl user working on shared source code who has been temporarily designated as the only person who is allowed to make changes.
How do you use pumpking in a sentence?
Each release of Perl is assigned a "pumpking." This person controls all changes to the actual source code of the language itself.
What part of speech is pumpking?
Pumpking is a noun.
How do you pronounce pumpking?
Pumpking is pronounced /ˈpʌm(p)kɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of pumpking?
The plural of pumpking is pumpkings.

Words near pumpking in the dictionary

  1. pumpkin-pie spice
  2. pumpkin-spice latte
  3. pumpkin-spice lattes
  4. pumpkineer
  5. pumpkineers
  6. pumpking
  7. pumpkingill
  8. pumpkingills
  9. pumpkings
  10. pumpkinhead
  11. pumpkinheads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pumpking (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pumpking.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pumpking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pumpking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.