barberry, berberry
(ˈbɑːbərɪ, ˈbɜːbərɪ)
Forms: 5 barbere, 6–7 barbery, -berie, -berrie, 6–8 berbery, 6–9 barbary, 9 berberry, 8– barberry.
[ad. med.L. barbaris (in Promp. Parv.), berberis, F. berberis, 16th c. berbere, Sp. berberis, It. berberi, of unknown origin and history. (An Arabic barbārīs, sometimes cited, is a transcription of the Latin employed by Arabian botanists; there is no such word in native dictionaries, Arabic or Persian. Cf. the earlier barbaryne.]
1. A shrub (Berberis vulgaris) found native in Europe and N. America, with spiny shoots, and pendulous racemes of small yellow flowers, succeeded by oblong, red, sharply acid berries; the bark yields a bright yellow dye. Also the genus Berberis, of which several American species are cultivated as ornamental shrubs in Europe.
| c 1420 Anturs Arth. vi, Vndur a lefe sale Of box and of barbere. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 684 The leaues and fruite of Barberies are of complexion colde. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict., Berbery, or Barberry-Bush. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 31 The spines of the common Berberry are a curious state of leaf, in which the parenchyma is displaced, and the ribs have become indurated. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 131 In most of the species of Barberry the terminal leaflet only is developed. |
2. The berry of this tree.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 58 Digestyves of Choler: Endyve, Lettyse..Berberyes. 1625 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 62 Lumpe sugar for conserve of barbaries. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery v. 79 Garnish with barberries and lemon. 1864 H. Ainsworth Tower Lond. 85 A piquant sauce of oiled butter and barberries. |
3. attrib., as in barberry-bush, barberry-tree, etc.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens 684 With the greene leaues of the Barberie bush they make sawce to eate with meates. 1814 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 266 The popular notion amongst farmers, that a barberry tree in the neighbourhood of a field of wheat often produces the mildew. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 353 An old barbary tree. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. Introd. 103 The tangled barberry-bushes hang their tufts of crimson berries. |