The Fruit Formerly Known As Quince

So I'm sitting at my desk today when the head of the school district (who is an unusually jovial and energetic fellow, by the way) bounds into the office, carrying with him what looks like a large pear with some leaves still attached to it. At the sight of this, Yayoi-San's eyes light up and she thanks him profusely as he hands her the fruit. He then rattles off an excuse for being in a hurry so fast that I barely catch any of it, turns to me, smiles and says "konnichiwa" and then quickly disappears whence he came.

After he leaves, Yayoi-San holds the pear up to her face and begins smelling it deeply with a look of absolute glee on her face. She then passes it around the room for all of us to smell. I smell it and it is indeed, quite fragrant. When I ask her what it is, she replies that it's called a marumero. Unfortunately, none of my usual online dictionaries have an entry for this word. When I tell her that I can't find an English translation, she says that she always assumed that marumero was a katakana transliteration of an English word to begin with. Strange.

Well, then she asks me if I want the pear for my room. I tell her that it smells nice but try not to show too much interest as she's obviously quite fond of it. So then I ask why you would want to put it in a room. Turns out, the fruit's flesh is too sour and tough to be eaten, so it's used primarily for fragrance. Then Yayoi-San types the word into one of her translation programs and it churns out the word "quince". Turns out, marumero is actually a transliteration of the Portuguese marmelo, from which the English word "marmalade" is derived. The fruit also appears to have quite a bit of mythological value to it, so I might have heard of it had I not so expertly avoided the Classics. Well, at least now I finally know what the sour quince log is all about. Happy Thanksgiving.