Etymology

crowberry

C3R1O1W4B3E1R1R1Y4

Today it means: Empetrum; a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. Full definition →

German Krähenbeere
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. German · calque ofKrähenbeere
  2. English todaycrowberry

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").

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.