English Explanatory Dictionary

whimberry

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The bilberry or whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus).

Pronunciation

/ˈʍɪmbəɹi/ /ˈwɪmbəɹi/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whimberry.wav /ˈʍɪmˌbɛɹi/ /ˈwɪmˌbɛɹi/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-whimberry.wav

Word forms

whimberry whimberries whinberry wimberry winberry windberry

Etymology

From earlier winberry, a variant of wineberry with regular shortening of the first vowel before a consonant cluster (in wineberry this was prevented or reversed due to analogy). Wineberry is derived from Middle English winberie, wineberie (“grape; type of berry”), from Old English wīnberġe, wīnberie (“grape”, literally “wine-berry”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīnabaʀi, from Proto-Germanic *wīnabasją (“grape; wineberry”), from *wīną (“wine”) (from Latin vīnum (“wine”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y- (“to twist, wind; etc.”), referring to the vine) + *bazją (“berry”) (further etymology unknown). The assimilation of /nb/ to /mb/ seen in some forms is to be expected (compare hemp from Old English henep). Other forms show the influence of unrelated words; the consonantism of forms with initial wh- is probably due to the influence of whin (“furze, gorse (Ulex europaeus); similar prickly plant”), while windberry clearly represents remodelling as wind + berry.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on W Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary