whimberryn.
/ˈhwɪmbəri/ local.
The bilberry or whortleberry.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > edible berries > bilberry or myrtleberry
blackberrylOE
wineberry14..
whimberryc1460
myrtle berry?a1500
blaeberry1562
whort1578
whortleberry1578
bilberry1584
vaccinium1597
whortle1597
frawn1726
a1100 in A. S. Napier Old Eng. Glosses 132/5194 Bacciniarum, winberigena.
c1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 78 Aftur mete peeres, nottys, strawberies, wynneberies, and hardchese.
1610 in J. Harland House & Farm Accts. Shuttleworths (1856) I. 189 Given to a wenche which brought winberries from Burneley woode, iiijd.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Morets, winne-berries, hurtle-berries.
a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 131 Winberries made me subject to fainting also, and are churlish things for the stomach.
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. 228 Black-worts... Biberries [sic]. Wind-berry.
1847 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words II Whimberries, bilberries.
1857 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 351 Bilberry, or Whortleberry..This elegant shrub..is sometimes called also Whinberry.
1860 W. White All round Wrekin viii. 74 Bilberries,—wimberries, as the rustics call them.
1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies i. 41 The heath was full of bilberries and whimberries.
1882 J. A. Lees & W. J. Clutterbuck Three in Norway xxi. 177 Four wimberry tarts..and a venison pie.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 10/1 Bilberry..is merely the midland name for the bleaberry of the North, the whortleberry of the West, and the whinberry of the Welsh Border.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1923; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.a1100