structural:expansion
Etymology

The name "durian" is derived from the Malay word duri (meaning 'thorn'), a reference to the numerous prickly thorns on its rind, combined with the noun-building suffix -an. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the alternate spelling durion was first used in a 1588 translation of The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof by the Spanish explorer Juan González de Mendoza:

There is one, yt is called in the Malaca tongue Durion, and is so good that it doth exceede in savour all others that euer they had seene, or tasted.

Other historical variants include duryoen, duroyen, durean, and dorian. The name of the type species, Durio zibethinus, is derived from Viverra zibetha (the large Indian civet), a mammal known for its odour.