Many explorers who came to the Americas brought back what they considered strange foods. The zucchini eventually found its way to Italy where it was named zucchino. Inhabitants of Central and South America have been eating zucchini for several thousand years, but the zucchini we know today is a variety of summer squash developed in Italy. The word zucchini comes from the Italian zucchino, meaning a small squash. The term squash comes from the Indian skutasquash meaning green thing eaten green. Christopher Columbus originally brought seeds to the Mediterranean region and Africa. The French term for zucchini is courgette, often used interchangably for yellow squash as well.