† melocoton Obs.
Forms: 7 malacaton, -catoon, -katoone, -cotoon, -malecotone, mali-, mallagatoon, melacatoon, -cotone, melicot(t)on, melicotonie, mellacat(t)on, mellicoton, melocotone, -cotune, 7–8 malacoton, malecotoon, melicotoon(e, 8 malacotoune, malocotoon, melacotoon, melicotony, melococoon, -coton, -cotony, -cotoon.
[a. Sp. melocoton, ad. It. melocotogno, ad. med.L. mēlum cotōneum (= late L. mālum cotōneum), ad. Gr. µῆλον κυδώνιον ‘Cydonian apple’: see coyn, quince. Cf. F. mirecoton, mirelicoton (Cotgr.).]
A peach grafted on a quince. Also melocoton peach.
The more original sense of ‘quince’, which occurs in Sp. and It., does not seem to have existed in Eng.
| 1611 Cotgr., Mirecoton, the delicate yellow Peach, called a Melicotonie. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair i. ii, A wife heere with a Strawbery-breath, Chery-lips,..and a soft veluet head, like a Melicotton. 1661 Rabisha Cookery Dissected 8 To pickle Mallagatoons. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 80/2 Sweetnings, as..Oranges and Lemmons and them candied, Mellacattons. 1704 Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 46/1 Melicotoons, Peaches, Auberges. 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. p. iii, The Malecotoon Peach, which is not worth any ones planting. 1744 A. Dobbs Countries Adjacent to Hudson's Bay 144 A Fruit they called Obi, like to Melacotoons. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 95 Peaches, Nectarines, Melococoons, Apricots..grow plentifully. |