medlar
(ˈmɛdlə(r))
Forms: 4–7, 9 medler, 5 meddeller, medeler, 5 medlier, 5–6 meddeler, 6 medlor, 5– medlar.
[a. OF. medler (Godefr. Compl. s.v. Nesplier), f. *medle (var. of mesle) medlar (fruit): see medle.
Although the word primarily denoted the tree, it is in our earliest quot. already applied to the fruit. In present use sense 2 is the more common, the tree being usually called ‘medlar-tree’; but Johnson 1755 (who was prob. not influenced by etymological considerations), and later lexicographers give sense 1 the first place.]
1. The fruit-tree Mespilus germanica.
The chief varieties in cultivation are the Dutch medlar, Nottingham medlar, and stoneless medlar.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 1041 The meddeler to graffe ek tol[d] is how. Ibid. iv. 493 Now meddellers in hoot lond gladdest be, So hit be moyst. a 1450 Fishing with Angle (1883) 8 Take a feyr schoyt of blake thorne crabtre medeler or geneper. a 1500 in Arnolde's Chron. 63/2 The medlar wyl bere welle yf he bee plantyd. 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. xliii. 713 Our common Medlers doo flower in Aprill and May. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. Nov. (1729) 222 Graff the Medler on the White-Thorn. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. (ed. 3) 374 There are several other Trees and Shrubs which are now in Flower, as..dwarf Medlar. 1796 C. Marshall Garden. xvii. (1813) 283 The sorts are, the German, the Italian, and the English or Nottingham Medler. 1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 271/2 The Medlar, Mespilus germanica, is a deciduous tree, native of the middle and south of Europe, and found in hedges and woods in England. |
b. Applied to other trees, as
Neapolitan medlar or
Oriental medlar, the
azarole,
Cratægus Azarolus.
Japan medlar, the
loquat.
| 1718 R. Bradley New Improv. Plant. & Gard. iii. 18 The L'Azzarole or Neapolitan Medlar is a kind of Service... Of late Years it has been brought into England [from Italy]. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Cratægus, 4. The jagged-leav'd cratægus, called parsley-leav'd medlar. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 513/2 [Cratægus Azarolus, variety] the oriental medlar. 1866 Treas. Bot. 727/2 Japan Medlar, Eriobotyra japonica. |
2. The fruit of the medlar tree, resembling a small brown-skinned apple, with a large cup-shaped ‘eye’ between the persistent calyx-lobes. It is eaten when decayed to a soft pulpy state.
| ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 1375 And many hoomly trees..That..bere, Medlers, ploumes, peres, chesteynes. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 13/7 Of fruit..Pesshes, medliers [F. nesples]. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 21 Medlars ar cold and dry, and constrictife. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 125 You'l be rotten ere you bee halfe ripe, and that's the right vertue of the Medler. 1755 Gray Let. in Poems (1775) 232 If there were nothing but medlars and black-berries in the world, I could be very well content to go without any at all. 1858 Glenny Gard. Every-day Bk. 248/2 Medlars should be gathered, and laid by to rot. |
| fig. 1791 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Rights of Kings xix, The heart should be a medlar, not a crab. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
medlar-jelly;
medlar-like adj.:
medlar tree = 1.
| 1881 Blackmore Christowell xxxvi, We will take her some *medlar jelly. |
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 42 The Fig tree is of no high growth..his flower *Medlerlike. |
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (E.D.S.) 53 Mespilus..is called in englishe a *medler tree. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. i. 34 Now will he sit vnder a Medler tree. 1873 Miss Thackeray Wks. (1891) I. 70 A medlar-tree. |