strawberry

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe sweet, usually red, edible accessory fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.

   They went to pick strawberries today.

   3 more examples

   But when he saw that the goat had a fine conky nose and handsome curly whiskers [...] Egbert let out one yell and bolted straight across the strawberry beds.

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 3

   Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”

   2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2019

   Is there a sweeter time of year than strawberry season? As soon as the trees start bursting into pink buds, the first strawberries can’t be far behind at the farmers market.

   2022 May 9, Casey Barber, “Strawberry season has arrived. Here are tips for enjoying spring’s sweetest treat”, in CNN, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2022

2. countableuncountableAny plant of the genus Fragaria (that bears such fruit).

   She has the best strawberry patch I've ever seen.

   1 more example

   He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 170

3. countableuncountableThe berry of the strawberry tree (Arbutus)

In a sentence

They went to pick strawberries today.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*ster-
2. Proto-Indo-European*sterh₃-
3. Proto-Indo-European*strew-
4. Proto-Germanic*strawą
5. Proto-West Germanic*strau
6. Old Englishstrēaw
7. Proto-Germanic*bazją
8. Proto-West Germanic*baʀi
9. Old Englishberġe
10. Old Englishstrēawberġe
11. Middle Englishstrawberie
12. Englishstrawberry

From Middle English strawberie, strawbery, from Old English strēawberġe, corresponding to straw + berry. Of various theories advanced to explain the name, the two most plausible are: 1. the fact that wild strawberries grow on straw-like runners (or stolons) (compare Norwegian Nynorsk stråbær, denoting cranberries, which grow in a similar way); 2. the practice, still common in parts of Europe, of gathering strawberries by stringing them on a straw or stalk.