quince
· n.
1 a hard, acid, pear-shaped fruit used in preserves or as flavouring.
2 the Asian shrub or small tree which bears this fruit. [Cydonia oblonga.]
3 (Japanese quince) another term for japonica.
– ORIGIN ME (orig. a collective pl.): from OFr. cooin, from L. (malum) cotoneum, var. of (malum) cydonium ‘apple of Cydonia (= Chania, in Crete)’.
From Concise Oxford Dict...
