Also 6–7 -chrestien, -crestien. [Fr. = ‘good Christian.’] A name given to one or two kinds of pears.
c. 1575. Arte of Planting, 39. Specially the Peare called bon Chrestien.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 191. Winter Bergamot, Winter Bon-crestien. Ibid. (1673), Rapin’s Garden. (1795), 312. In Amiterna’s rule the Sabine boors Added Bon-cretiens to their former stores.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. liv. I’ll call them bon-christian or good-christian pears.
1859. Loudon, Encycl. Gardening, Kitchen Pears, 6. Spanish bon Chrétien, long known in France, probably from Spain.
