strange fruit en · NOUN
Etymology
From a poem by Abel Meeropol later recorded by Billie Holiday (1939), see quotations.
Meanings
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(uncountable) A person who has been lynched by hanging; such people collectively.
We speak for the brothers behind bars whose words, at the very least, must be liberated We speak for the strange fruit hung from trees We speak for the brothers who drowned in alcohol, and whose spirits were pierced by needles
1986, Joseph Beam, “Introduction”, in In The Life:Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
1937 January, Abel Meeropol, “Bitter Fruit”, in The New York Teacher: