This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Monday 20 December 2021

Spot the Frippet: berries.

 A berry is (according to the dictionary) an indehiscent fruit with two or more seeds and a fleshy pericarp...

...but that includes grapes and watermelons, which aren't what any non-botanist would think of as berries at all.

But never mind the botanists, we all know a berry when we see one. They're usually more or less spherical, and often red, and the birds eat them in winter.

If they're on holly then they are a symbol of Christmas:


photo by Jürgen Howaldt


The holly bears a berry

As red as any blood

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

For to do poor sinners good.


Or so they say.

For such an old word, berry has curiously few other meanings. Coffee beans are called berries, sometimes, and so are the eggs of lobsters:


 and so are the layers of earth used to make a wychert wall (which are only made in a very small area of England) but that's really about it.

They're still everywhere, though. 

Have fun spotting them:


cranberry sauce: photo by Veganbaking.net 

 But do be careful which you eat.

deadly nightshade. Photo by Donald Macauley

Spot the Frippet: berry. This word was berie in Old English.


No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.