Meaning

noun a bitter alkaloid extracted from chinchona bark; used in malaria therapy

originThe noun is either: * derived from Spanish quina (“quinine”) (a clipping of quinaquina (“Cinchona bark”)) + English -ine (suffix forming names of chemical substances, especially (among others) alkaloidal substances); or * borrowed from French quinine, from quin(quina) (“Cinchona bark”) + -ine (feminine form of -in (suffix forming nouns)). Spanish quinaquina and French quinquina are both derived…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0