whimberry local.
(ˈhwɪmbərɪ)
Forms: 1 winberiᵹe, 5 wynneberie, 7 win(ne)berry, 8 wind-berry, 9 whinberry, w(h)imberry.
[Assimilated f. whinberry, alteration of winberry (representing, with normal vowel-shortening, OE. w{iacu}nberiᵹe; cf. wineberry) by association with whin1.]
The bilberry or whortleberry.
| a 1100 in Napier O.E. Glosses 132/5194 Bacciniarum, winberiᵹena. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 78 Aftur mete peeres, nottys, strawberies, wynneberies, and hardchese. 1610 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 189 Given to a wenche which brought winberries from Burneley woode, iiij{supd}. 1611 Cotgr., Morets, winne-berries, hurtle-berries. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) I. 131 Winberries made me subject to fainting also, and are churlish things for the stomach. 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. 228 Blackworts... Biberries [sic]. Wind-berry. 1847 Halliwell, Whimberries, bilberries. 1857 Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 351 Bilberry, or Whortleberry..This elegant shrub..is sometimes called also Whinberry. 1860 W. White Wrekin viii. 74 Bilberries,—wimberries, as the rustics call them. 1862 Kingsley Water Bab. i, The heath was full of bilberries and whimberries. 1882 Lees & Clutterbuck Three in Norway xxi. 177 Four wimberry tarts..and a venison pie. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 10/1 Bilberry..is merely the midland name for the bleaberry of the North, the whortleberry of the West, and the whinberry of the Welsh Border. |