crowberry
nounUK /ˈkɹəʊbəɹɪ/
Etymology From crow + berry; probably a calque of German Krähenbeere. Apparently so-called due to birds' fondness for the fruit. Yet the dark color (compare Old Norse blár (“blue-black, like a raven's sheen”)) may be the main or another factor; compare Inuktitut paurngaq (“crowberry”) (allegedly meaning "which looks like soot").
1
Empetrum; a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit.
2
Empetrum nigrum; a species of crowberry.
- Black crowberry. Empetrum nigrum. Crowberry Family. Fruit. — The black drupe is berrylike, globular, and incloses six to nine seedlike nutlets with a seed in each. The calyx is at the base and the stigma is at the apex. The drupes are solitary in the leaf axils. They are juicy, acid, edible, and serve as food for the Arctic birds.1905, Maude Gridley Peterson, How to Know Wild Fruits: A Guide to Plants When Not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf, Macmillan, page 202:
3
A fruit of this plant.
- Derived terms
- red crowberry