Meanings
plural whimberries · alternative whinberry · alternative wimberry · alternative winberry · alternative windberry
- UKdialectalThe bilberry or whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus).
She made whimberry tarts and we ate them with thick, yellow cream until we were tight as drums.
2011 December 30, Nina Bawden, In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN, page 382 more examples
Another variable species: when fed upon whimberry or cowberry it is a most distinct-looking insect, often with the white patches placed in a triangle, one on the disk, one on the hind margin, and the usual one: no band.
1871, C. S. Gregson, “Varieties and Aberrations of Lepidoptera”, in Edward Newman, editor, The Entomologist, volume V, London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., page 75The lovely pink bloom of the whimberry stalk drops on the turf as the inner part knits itself into hard, green, beady fruit, whilst the leafage changes from a soft green to yellowish brown.
1900, Helen Brierley, Morgan Brierley, a Memoir: With a Selection from His Writings, Rochdale: James Clegg, page 260
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*weh₁y-“to twist, wind; etc.”
- Latinvīnum“wine”
- Proto-Germanic*wīnabasją“grape; wineberry”
- Proto-West Germanic*wīnabaʀi
- Old Englishwīnberġe
- Middle Englishwinberie
- Englishwhimberry
From earlier winberry, a variant of wineberry with regular shortening of the first vowel before a consonant cluster (in wineberry this was prevented or reversed due to analogy). Wineberry is derived from Middle English winberie, wineberie (“grape; type of berry”), from Old English wīnberġe, wīnberie (“grape”, literally “wine-berry”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīnabaʀi, from Proto-Germanic *wīnabasją (“grape; wineberry”), from *wīną (“wine”) (from Latin vīnum (“wine”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y- (“to twist, wind; etc.”), referring to the vine) + *bazją (“berry”) (further etymology unknown). The assimilation of /nb/ to /mb/ seen in some forms is to be expected (compare hemp from Old English henep). Other forms show the influence of unrelated words; the consonantism of forms with initial wh- is probably due to the influence of whin (“furze, gorse (Ulex europaeus); similar prickly plant”), while windberry clearly represents remodelling as wind + berry.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
whimberry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whimberry
“whimberry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whimberry. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whimberry,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whimberry.
Source: whimberry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.