Etymologically
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strawberry

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstɹɔːb(ə)ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English strawberi, also streaberie and strawbery,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English strēawberige, also strēaberige and strēowberige,[5][6][7] formed from Old English strēaw (“straw”) + berige (“berry”).[5][8][9][3] No matching compound is found in any other Germanic language.[5][3] The reason for the name is uncertain.[5][3][2][10] One explanation takes the first element in the sense of a small piece of straw or chaff, after the seedlike achenes scattered over the surface of the fruit;[5][3][11][12] another refers it to the plant's long runners, which trail on the ground like straws.[5][3][12][13] The OED rejects Kluge's view that the first element is cognate with Latin frāgum (“strawberry”).[5] Old English also had eorðberge (“earth-berry”), compare German Erdbeere.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both the fruit and the plant: Old English, in glosses of Latin fraga in the vocabularies printed by Wright and Wülcker, and in the Leechdoms, a book of remedies.[5][6] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1000, the Middle English plant name to about 1200 and the fruit to 1328–29.[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the wild fruits could be red, white or green.[2] From the 16th century the word was used of a carved or embroidered strawberry as an ornament (1523),[5] and since the late 17th century as a colour, first recorded in 1688[5] (the 1670s in Etymonline).[2] Compounds include strawberry mark, a red birthmark (1818), and strawberry blonde, reddish-blonde hair (1879).[2] In the 19th and 20th centuries it was applied to a sea anemone (1856), to strawberry jam (1890), to a strawberry-shaped emery bag (1903), in North American colloquial use to a sore or graze from sliding on the ground (1921), and to a red nose, especially a drinker's (1949).[5][14] In Shropshire it was also spelt straberry.[15]

Timeline

  • Old English – the fruit and the plant, strēawberige.[5][6]
  • c. 1200 – Middle English streaberie, the plant.[3]
  • 1328–29 – the fruit, in Middle English.[3]
  • 1523 – a representation of the fruit as an ornament.[5]
  • 1688 – short for strawberry-coloured.[5]
  • 1818 – strawberry mark.[2]
  • 1856 – a sea anemone resembling a strawberry.[5]
  • 1879 – strawberry blonde.[2]
  • 1890 – strawberry jam.[5]
  • 1921 – North American, a sore or graze.[5][14]
  • 1949 – a red nose, especially from heavy drinking.[5][14]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The soft red fruit of a low-growing plant, covered with small seedlike achenes: They picked a basket of strawberries for the cake.
  2. Any of the plants of the genus Fragaria, which bear this fruit and spread by runners.
  3. A deep pinkish-red colour.
  4. (North American, informal) A sore or graze, especially one caused by sliding on the ground.

Word family

  • strawberry blonde
  • strawberry mark
  • strawberry roan
  • strawberry tree

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)