Crowberries

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small dark berries produced by the crowberry, a low evergreen shrub of northern heaths and mountain moors
2. Black, inedible-looking fruits growing on mats of the crowberry plant in cold upland and Arctic regions
3. The glossy black berries of a creeping heath shrub that grows across tundra, moorland and rocky northern ground

Etymology: The plural "crowberries" is simply the form of "crowberry," the name for a low, creeping evergreen heath plant of northern regions whose small black berries are edible but rarely eaten. The change from "crowberry" to "crowberries" follows the usual English rule of swapping a final "y" after a consonant for "ies." The base word is a compound of "crow" and "berry." The naming is probably a calque of German "Krähenbeere," meaning the same thing, so English speakers likely borrowed the idea from German wording rather than inventing it independently. The usual explanation is that birds, crows among them, were fond of the fruit. Yet the dark, glossy colour of the berries may have mattered too. Old Norse "blár" described a blue-black sheen like a raven's feathers, and the Inuktitut name "paurngaq" is said to mean something that looks like soot, which suggests the colour may have been the main or an additional reason for the name.