Everyday LifeGreek → English
Quince
/kwɪns/noun
A hard, fragrant yellow fruit, inedible raw, that turns pink when cooked.
The Greek roots
Κυδωνία
Kydōnía
Cydonia in Crete
μῆλον
mêlon
apple
Literally: “Cydonian apple”
The story of the word
Middle English had coyn in the singular. Quince is what happened when the plural, quins, was mistaken for a singular and given a plural of its own. Behind it lie Latin cotoneum malum and Greek κυδώνιον μῆλον, the apple of Kydonia, the Cretan city that is now Chania. Whether the Greeks really named the fruit for the town or reshaped a borrowed Anatolian word into a familiar place name is unsettled.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
marmalademelon
In a sentence
Two quinces in the bowl scented the whole kitchen for a fortnight.