medlar – English noun declension

English noun forms of medlar

Noun: medlar
Singularmedlar
Pluralmedlars

Sample Sentences

  • I was once before him for getting a wench with child....but I was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. [c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):]

Etymology

From Middle English medler, medeler, from Old French medler, meslier, from medle, mesdle (“medlar fruit”), from Latin mespilum, from Ancient Greek μέσπιλον (méspilon). Related to the rare mesple, via Proto-West Germanic *mespilā. Displaced Old English openærs (“open-arse”) (and similar names, from anatomical comparison). See: Middle English Nouns 'medler', Latin Nouns 'mespilum', Ancient Greek Nouns 'μέσπιλον'.