melocotonn.

Etymology: < Spanish melocotón peach (?1513) < Italian melocotogno quince (1340) or its etymon post-classical Latin melum cotoneum quince (one isolated attestation in a minor author of the 5th or 6th cent.), variant (after post-classical Latin melum mele n.¹) of classical Latin mālum cotōneum , probably variant of mālum Cydōnium < mālum apple (see male n.²) + Cydōneum , neuter of Cydōneus ( < Cydōnea (ancient Greek Κυδωνία ), the name of a town (modern Khania) in Crete + -eus : see -eous suffix), after ancient Greek Κυδώνιον μῆλον : see further discussion below. Compare coyn n., quince n.¹ Compare French mirecoton (in quot. 1611), mirelicoton (in the same text).The word may have been applied to a downy variety of peach in Spanish (and thence in French and English, in which it appears never to have had the Italian and older Spanish sense ‘quince’) by interpretation of the second element as coton cotton n.¹ (compare quot. 1731). However, already in the mid 16th cent. the sense was explained as being originally ‘a peach grafted on a quince’, as reflected also in the definition in N.E.D. (1906) s.v. This explanation is certainly possible, although, while it is common practice to graft a peach on a plum or almond stock, it would be much more unusual to graft it on the more distantly related quince, and it is therefore perhaps more likely that this explanation is etymologically motivated. The earliest form of the designation for quince in ancient Greek is κοδύμαλον in Alcman (7th cent. b.c.): it is possible that this represents a loan from a language of Asia Minor, imported with the fruit. Κυδώνιον μῆλον would hence represent a reformation by folk etymology after the place name. Classical Latin mālum cotōneum is attested earlier than mālum Cydōnium and may represent an independent borrowing from the Greek or a direct loan from the posited Asia Minor designation for the fruit. For a fuller discussion see F. Solmsen in Glotta (1911) 3 241–5.