The cranberry, some say, is so named because it is eaten by cranes. Perhaps. But it's just as likely that the word derives from the similarity between the plant's stamen and the crane's beak -- as the common geranium or cranesbill is named after the flower's distinct enlarged pistil. (The American cranberry has an English cousin that is known, from its watery habitat, as the fenberry. The fenberry is neither eaten in nor by fens.) But if in fact cranberries were the food of cranes, what about the common bearberry (also known as crowberry, foxberry, and hog cranberry) -- did this plant also derive its name from its consumers? I'm skeptical, as I am skeptical about the derivation of the word lingonberry or cowberry, cows not being famous for berry eating. In fact, lingon means berry in Swedish, so the lingonberry is, etymologically speaking, a berryberry. Inasmuch as berryberries contain thiamine, they may help to prevent beriberi.
The bunchberry, a member of the dogwood family, is also known as the squirrelberry, pigeonberry, and crackerberry (from crake = crow), but never as mooseberry, though it's prized by moose, who have themselves provided a name for a favorite food -- the mountain maple or moosewood.
The circumpolar cloudberry is sometimes called the salmonberry, but no one claims that it is nibbled by salmons. And what about the gooseberry? There's no discernible relation between gooseberry and geese. There are also gooseberries that have shed whatever goosiness they may once have possessed. The plant that was originally known as the Chinese gooseberry was transported to New Zealand, where it was selected, hybridized, and cloned, to emerge after commercial re-christening as the kiwifruit or kiwi -- the name gooseberry not considered classy enough for international export. To the best of my knowledge, kiwis are not eaten by kiwis.
Blackberry and blueberry pose no etymological challenge, but raspberry is a bit of a mystery, there being no obvious rasp to the berry. The word raspberry was most definitely not derived from the slang term for a rude derogatory sound -- a usage that is only traceable to the last part of the nineteenth century. The unpalatable bristly dewberry has no particular connection to dew. It's popularly said that the serviceberry is so called because, when it flowers early in the spring, the ground has thawed enough to bury -- or conduct a service -- for last winter's dead. But it's a false etymology -- in fact, the service in serviceberry comes directly from its Latin ancestor sorbus (just as the mul in mulberry derives from Latin morus). The juneberry does in fact derive its name from its month of flowering. The loganberry is named for its hybridizer, James Logan, who crossed the blackberry and the raspberry. Although the name huckleberry -- also known as a hurtleberry or whortleberry -- is sometimes applied to the blueberry, it describes a botanically distinct species. The slang term huckleberry for a layabout -- nowadays a slacker -- was in use a generation or so before Mark Twain made it famous. Huckleberry Finn might just as easily be known as Whortleberry Finn. The bilberry is more distinguished when it is called a fraughan. The jostaberry is brand-new to the market; it's a cross between a gooseberry and a blackcurrant. (Currants are berries even though not called so; the word currant derives from their older name -- raisins of Corinth.) The strawberry has nothing whatsoever to do with straw. Some think that name derives from the chaff-like external seeds or achenes which cover the fruit, but it's more likely that the name is drawn from the plant's habit of growth: runners stray or are strewn over the ground. A thousand years ago strawberries were called earthberries, a name not especially suitable for commerce.
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