Snakeberry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A low-growing plant of the rose family that bears small red berries which are not good to eat, such as the false strawberry
2. Any of several woodland or creeping plants whose bright red berries are inedible and are sometimes called by this name
3. The common name for certain plants, including the false strawberry and some baneberries, that produce small red fruit unsuitable for eating

Etymology: Snakeberry is a plain compound: "snake" joined to "berry". The name points to the plant's reputation rather than to any sense of the berry itself. Many red-berried plants of woodlands and grasslands were once thought to be connected with snakes, either because snakes were believed to favour their shady habitats or because the fruit was assumed to be poisonous, and the word records that folk belief. Its literal sense is simply a berry associated with snakes, and the name is transparent in a way that many older plant names are not.