medlar
9.9
A small brown fruit with tough skin and soft sweet inside that people often make into jam
- noun
- /ˈmɛdlər/
:
níspero
- Grigson, another symposium friend, is gone now, but with her in mind, I pocketed four of Saint Antony's medlars and sneaked them past U.S. customs.
Examples
-
They were medlars, those ancient European fruits now mostly forgotten because they can't be eaten out of hand even when they're fully ripe.
Academic text (1991) -
I made a delicious jam using the ripe medlar fruits from my garden.
-
Barrels of cherries, quinces, and medlars soaked in honey and wine
Blog text (6) -
In autumn, the market sells medlars alongside apples and pears.
-
The medlar is often used in recipes for tart desserts and preserves.
Synonyms
medlar fruit
vsmedlar
9.3
A small brown fruit from a tree eaten after it becomes soft
is the shorter single-word form used to name that edible fruit
Compounds
wild medlar
- South African
9.9
A small tree from southern Africa that loses its leaves and has edible fruit
How Ripe
medlar
9.9
unripe
3
2.7
3
2.7
Surface Forms
Etymology
Medlar came into English from old French and Latin names like mespilus, and the name long meant both the tree and its fruit, a small brown edible fruit. That's why medlar can mean the fruit itself as well.