Crakeberry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A low evergreen heath shrub of northern regions that bears small black berries, also known as the crowberry
2. Small creeping northern plant with needle-like leaves and dark purplish-black berries found on moors and mountains
3. A hardy mat-forming shrub of cold, boggy heathland whose edible black berries are also called crowberries

Etymology: Crakeberry is a dialect synonym for crowberry, the low evergreen heath shrub that bears small, dark, inedible-to-most berries on northern moors and mountains. Its first half, "crake", is an old word meaning crow or raven, so the plant takes its name from a bird. The crow in question is not the one you might picture in a city park; the name points to the blackness of the fruit, which birds were thought to favour, though that explanation is a guess rather than something the record confirms. The same idea underlies "crowberry" itself, which is the standard name in English. Crake and crow are close relatives, and "berry" simply supplies the second half of the compound. The word may be a loan from Norse, since the Danish "kragebær" follows exactly the same pattern, crow-berry, and the two plants share the same nickname across the North Sea.