Literal translation
to embrace like pumpkins
Meaning
to embrace warmly, with emotion
Explanation
This expression means to embrace warmly, with emotion, and plays on a plant image that is at once tender and comical. The word cougourdo, related to coucourdo, names the squash or gourd, a round, generous vegetable whose plants readily sprawl together in the garden, stems and leaves winding around one another until they merge. Comparing two people embracing to pumpkins highlights the sheer abandon of the hug, that moment when one clings to the other without restraint, bodies entangled like cucurbits on their trellis. The image draws its comic tenderness from the gap between the vegetable's homely roundness and the warmth of a human gesture of affection, producing an endearing effect. The register is familiar and affectionate, used to describe warm reunions among relatives, especially at family gatherings where emotion shows itself through long embraces. The expression illustrates the Provençal taste for drawing comparisons from the concrete world of the garden and the soil.