ProbableIndirect, via a person or title
melocoton
noun · first attested 17th century
Buried in the word is a Cretan city that also gave English the quince.
An archaic English word for a yellow fleshed peach with red skin, or for a quince.
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 17th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Kydonia
- In English
melocoton
Spanish melocoton comes from Latin malum cotonium, apple of Cydonia, the Greek city on Crete now called Chania. The same Latin phrase produced French coing and English quince. Melocoton first meant a peach grafted onto quince stock, which is why English used the word for both fruits.
Greece
All 29 entries 28 more words from Greece
marathonThe long race is named for a plain in Attica.MarathoncurrantThe baking fruit is a worn-down word for Corinth.CorinthmagnetThe lodestone is named for Magnesia.MagnesiaacademyEvery academy is named for a grove outside Athens.AkademeialaconicA tight-lipped style is named for Sparta’s region.SpartaOlympicThe games are named for a sanctuary, not for Mount Olympus.OlympiaatticThe room under the roof is named for the region around Athens.AtticaBoeotianAn insult preserved from one Greek region's rivalry with another.Boeotia