Dictionary

earthberry en · 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)).

Meanings

1. (nonstandard, rare) 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. 1869 July 1, Thomas Bridges, “Fireland and its people”, in The South American Missionary Magazine, volume III, page 114:
   • 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. 1882, Jeremiah Curtin, “The Round Stone (A Hungarian Folk-story)”, in St. Nicholas, volume 9:
   • 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. 1999, 2000 Herbal Almanac
   • One evening in Norway we had earthberries and cream just as Mr Haythornthwaite, the Englishman who visited our town when I was a child, would have had in Norway in the nine-teen-twenties. 2013, Desmond Hogan, Farewell to Prague:
   • The Portuguese word is also a mystery. In northern Europe it is simply the earth-berry due to the plant's habit of creeping along the ground. 2014, Denis Dunstone, Why Is an Apple a Pomme?:
   • It didn't take long for the waves of heat to reach him, and with them came the scents of tempanuts, earthberries, and honey. 2012, Lena Horn, The Celestial Saga: Forgotten Fox:

Forms