berry

Meanings

Noun

• A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.
• A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
• A coffee bean.
• One of the ova or eggs of a fish.
• A police car.
• A dollar.
• A mound; a barrow.
• A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.
• An excavation; a military mine.

Verb

• To pick berries.
• To bear or produce berries.
• To beat; give a beating to; thrash.
• To thresh (grain).

Origin

• From Middle English berye, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją.
• Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær.
• The slang sense “police car” may come from the lights on the vehicles’ roofs.
• From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg, from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz ("mountain, hill"). More at barrow.
• From Middle English bery ("a burrow"). More at burrow.
• From Middle English beryen, berien, from Old English *berian (found only in past participle ġebered), from Proto-West Germanic *barjan, from Proto-Germanic *barjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-.
• Cognate with Scots berry, barry, German beren ("to beat, knead"), Icelandic berja ("to beat"), Latin feriō ("strike, hit").