huckleberry U.S.
(ˈhʌk(ə)lbɛrɪ)
[Conjectured to be a corruption of hurtleberry, whortleberry.]
1. a. The fruit and plant of species of Gaylussacia (N.O. Vacciniaceæ), low berry-bearing shrubs, common in North America. Also applied to N. American species of the closely allied Vaccinium, more properly called blueberry.
| 1670 D. Denton Descr. New York (1845) 3 The Fruits natural to the Island are Mulberries, Posimons, Grapes great and small, Huckelberries. 1796 Ned Evans II. 118 The chief dish is broth made of bears' flesh, dogs, and huckleberries. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. xvi. 249 To peddle out a lot of huckleberries. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. 357 A small heap of solemn black huckleberries. 1897 Willis Flower. Pl. II. 384 The Vaccinium pennsylvanicum..is called the blue huckleberry. |
b. attrib. and Comb., esp. as huckleberry pie.
| 1751 J. Bartram Observ. Trav. Pennsylv. etc. 13 The land hereabouts is middling white oak and huckleberry land. 1775 P. V. Fithian Jrnl. (1934) II. 68 We have..boil'd potatoes & huckleberry-pie. 1851 Thoreau Autumn (1894) 8 The huckleberry bushes on Conantum are all turned red. 1854 Lowell Cambridge 30 Yrs. Ago Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 70 The greater part of what is now Cambridgeport was then (in the native dialect) a ‘huckleberry pastur’. a 1862 Thoreau Cape Cod vii. (1894) 155 That kind of gall called Huckleberry-apple. 1865 Whittier Snow-Bound 479 Dread Olympus at his will Became a huckleberry hill. 1869 [see cranberry pie]. 1947 Mazama Sept. 1/1 Smell that turkey, those roasting ears, and the huckleberry pies? 1972 Punch 1 Mar. 292/3 A sliver of freeze-dried huckleberry pie with apple pandowdy and French fries. |
2. U.S. colloq. A small amount, degree, or extent.
| 1832 J. K. Paulding Westward Ho! I. 182 [I once got] within a huckleberry of being smothered to death. 1920 E. Bok Americanization of Edward Bok 165 He always kept ‘a huckleberry or two’ ahead of his readers. |
3. A person, spec. (derog.) a person of little consequence.
| [1835 Gent's. Vade-Mecum (Philadelphia) 22 Aug. 2/4 Orson, the wild man of the woods is nothing to him—not a circumstance—not a huckleberry.] 1868 New Eng. Base Ballist 3 Sept. 17/1 Now then, my huckleberry, look sharp! you're wrong! 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee 338 The Saracen..is no huckleberry. |
4. In various phrases: to be someone's huckleberry: to be someone's sweetheart, friend, or partner; to be a huckleberry to (or over) someone's persimmon: a proverbial phrase (see quots.).
| 1832 J. K. Paulding Westward Ho! I. ix. 80 If the [broad-]horn gets broadside to the current, I wouldn't risk a huckleberry to a persimmon that we don't every soul get treed, and sink to the bottom. 1834 D. Crockett Narr. Life ix. 70 But to do this, and write the warrants too, was at least a huckleberry over my persimmon. 1856 W. G. Simms Eutaw 553 My larning ain't a huckleberry to your persimmon. 1880 A. A. Hayes New Colorado (1881) v. 68 The first words that we heard him speak settled his nationality, for..he sententiously remarked, ‘Hi'm 'is 'uckleberry.’ 1885 D. D. Porter Incidents Civil War 204 ‘I am the fleet-surgeon of the Mississippi squadron!’..‘I'm a huckleberry above that persimmon, 'cause I'm the chief cook.’ 1889 [see persimmon 3]. 1926 N. N. Puckett in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 8/2 Sir, you is a huckleberry beyon' my persimmon. 1936 J. Tully Bruiser (1946) 37 Well, I'm your huckleberry, Mr. Haney. 1951 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xv. 56 I'll be your huckleberry. |
Hence ˈhuckleˌberrying vbl. n., gathering huckleberries.
| 1721–2 in Temple & Sheldon Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875) 160 By horse to go huckle-berrying 0 0 6. 1883 Leisure Hour 702/2, I have joined children in huckleberrying, thimbleberrying..and bilberrying. |