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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

bayberry en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe? Old English beġerclip.? Old English *beġ Latin bācader. Old French baieder. Middle English baye English bay ▲ Old English berġe Middle English berie English berry English bayberry From bay + berry.

Meanings

  1. (Canada, US) The fruit of the wax myrtle shrub; or the plant itself (Morella cerifera), with aromatic, leathery leaves and waxy berries.
    • It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  2. (Canada, US) The fruit of the wax myrtle shrub; or the plant itself (Morella cerifera), with aromatic, leathery leaves and waxy berries. ▸ Other species in the family Myricaceae, especially in genus Myrica; bay-rum tree, candleberry.
    • The two North American genera are Myrica (bayberry) and Comptonia (sweet-fern). 2002, James Fralish, Scott Franklin, Taxonomy and Ecology of Woody Plants in North American Forests, Myricaceae (Bayberry or Wax-Myrtle Family), page 230:
  3. The fruit of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).
    • [T]heir shape was much like a Figg, but very much smaller, some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry, others, and the biggest, of a Hazel-Nut. 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographica, section XLIII:
  4. West Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa), a tropical American shrub with aromatic leaves that are used in the preparation of bay rum.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
bayberries Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

red bayberry · southern bayberry · Sierra bayberry · Chinese bayberry · faya bayberry · northern bayberry · California bayberry · bayberry tallow · Japanese bayberry · bayberry waxtree · scentless bayberry · bayberry willow · Asian bayberry · bayberry wax

Synonyms

candleberry (species in the family Myricaceae) · wax myrtle (species in the family Myricaceae) · wax myrtle (Morella cerifera)

Translations (3)

pl woskownica (any tree of the genus Myrica) · pl owoc wawrzynu szlachetnego (fruit of the bay laurel) · pl korzennik meksykański (Pimenta racemosa)