English

Proper noun

Berry

1. A surname​.
2. A male given name.
   • 1930 P. G. Wodehouse, Big Money, Colliers' Weekly, Vol.86, page 110:

     "Beresford Conway. All my pals call me Berry."

   • 1979 Berry Gordy, Movin' Up. Pop Gordy Tells His Story, Harper & Row, ISBN 0060220546, page 9:

     Since my father's name was Berry Gordy, he named me Berry Gordy. There's no middle name.

Etymology 2

From berry, also a pet form of Beryl and Berenice.

Proper noun

Berry

1. (rare) A female given name.
   • 2002 James Hadley Chase, Not My Thing, House of Stratus, ISBN 1842321153, page 152:

     "I'm Beryl Shaddock. Call me Berry," the girl said.

   • 2005 Sandra-Kay Austin, The Old Man's Secret, Trafford Publishing, ISBN 1412071941, page 34:

     "What's with your dad calling you 'Berry' anyway? What kind of name is 'Berry'?" "Oh, it's short for Huckleberry," she replied, as if that explained everything.

French

Proper noun

Berry

1. A region and former province in the center of France.

English

Baskets of various berries in the common sense. Only blueberries are berries in the botanical sense.

Collage of four berries in the botanical sense, not to the same scale: red gooseberries (left), red currants (top), a persimmon (bottom) and grapes (right).

Noun

berry ‎(plural berries)

1. A small fruit, of any one of many varieties.
2. (botany) A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
3. A coffee bean.
4. One of the ova or eggs of a fish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Travis to this entry?)

Derived terms

Translations

References

1. ↑ Marlies Philippa et al., eds., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands, A-Z, s.v. “bes” (Amsterdam UP, 3 Dec. 2009) .
2. ↑ J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams, eds., Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.vv. “blow”, “rub” (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), pp. 72, 490.
3. ↑ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.v. “*ƀazjan” (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 40.

Verb

berry ‎(third-person singular simple present berries, present participle berrying, simple past and past participle berried)

1. To pick berries.

   On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying, whether we wanted to go or not.

2. To bear or produce berries.

Usage notes

• Unlikely to be used to refer to commercial harvesting of berries.

Derived terms

• berrying

Etymology 2

From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg ‎(“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-Germanic *bergaz ‎(“mountain, hill”). More at barrow.

Alternative forms

• berye, berie

Noun

berry ‎(plural berries)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A mound; a barrow.

Etymology 3

From Middle English bery ‎(“a burrow”). More at burrow.

Noun

berry ‎(plural berries)

1. (dialectal) A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.
2. An excavation; a military mine.

Etymology 4

From Middle English beryen, berien, from Old English *berian (found only in past participle ġebered ‎(“crushed, kneaded, harassed, oppressed, vexed”)), from Proto-Germanic *barjaną ‎(“to beat, hit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‎(“to rip, cut, split, grate”). Cognate with Scots berry, barry ‎(“to thresh, thrash”), German beren ‎(“to beat, knead”), Icelandic berja ‎(“to beat”), Latin feriō ‎(“strike, hit”, verb).

Verb

berry ‎(third-person singular simple present berries, present participle berrying, simple past and past participle berried)

1. (transitive) To beat; give a beating to; thrash.
2. (transitive) To thresh (grain).