earthberry

noun

Etymology

From earth + berry. First attested in the 1800s, mostly in texts about or translated from German or other languages which use similar terms, of which it is likely a calque: German Erdbeere, Dutch aardbei, Danish jordbær, etc. Compare Old English eorþberġe (“strawberry”, literally “earthberry”). Also compare Polish poziomka, Russian земляни́ка (zemljaníka) (related to земля́ (zemljá)).

  1. derived from *bʰerH- — “to rip, cut, split, grate
  2. inherited from *barjaną — “to beat, hit
  3. inherited from *barjan
  4. inherited from *berian
  5. inherited from beryen
  6. formed as earthberry — “earth + berry

Definitions

  1. A berry whose fruit lies upon the ground, in particular the strawberry (plant and fruit)

    • The berries of the islands are sweet black currants, cranberries or goosh, strawberries and earthberries, together with the diddy, mountain, and malvina berries common to the Falkland Islands.
    • One time, the poor man had had no bread in the cupboard for a whole week, and the family lived on roots and stewed earthberries.
    • Wild Strawberries (Fragaria virginiana): A member of the rose family, the strawberry also has the nickname earthberry. No one could mistake this plant's succulent red and juicy berries.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for earthberry. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA