An archaic or variant spelling of quinine, a bitter alkaloid drug derived from cinchona bark used to treat malaria and other fevers.
From Spanish quina (cinchona bark), from Quechua kina. The spelling 'chinin' represents an older English transliteration before standardization to 'quinine' became dominant in the 19th century.
This word shows how spelling standardization happened gradually—different languages and even different English writers spelled this antimalarial drug differently until the scientific community settled on 'quinine.' It's a fossil in the language!
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