durian

What it means

1. countableuncountableAny of several trees, genus Durio, of Southeast Asia.
2. countableuncountableThe spiky edible fruit of this tree, known for its strong taste and very strong, unpleasant odor.

   Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians.

   1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 115

   3 more examples

   1692, Robert Boyle, General Heads for the Natural History of a Country Great or Small, London: John Taylor and S. Hedford, “Enquiries for Suratte, &c.,” p. 96, Whether the Betele hath such a contrariety to the Durion, that a few Leaves of that, put to a whole Shopful of Durions, will make them all rot suddenly; and whether those that have surfeited on Durions, and thereby over-heated themselves, do, by laying a Leaf or two of Betele upon their Breasts or Stomachs, immediately cure the Inflammations, and Recover.

   The Mangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant; but most abundant and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned superior to all others.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 116

   The dessert I thoroughly enjoyed, for the various fruits of Singapore are delicious. One of them, the "durion," exhales a most noxious perfume, but is pleasant to the palate.

   1869 November, “The Land of the Malay: A Record of Travel in the Oriental Tropics”, in [Thomas] Mayne Reid, editor, Onward: A Magazine for the Young Manhood of America, New York, N.Y.: Onward Publishing Office, →OCLC, page 494

3. uncountableA deep, rich yellow colour, like that of durian flesh (also called durian yellow).

In a sentence

The Mangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant; but most abundant and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned superior to all others.

1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 116

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Austronesian*duʀi“thorn”
2. Malaydurian
3. Englishdurian

From Malay durian, ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *duʀi (“thorn”). Doublet of iwi, from Māori.