SC - Names (OT)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Well, Gerek thinks it's probably too late to throw this in, but I've done 
all this typing already from the teeny tiny type of the condensed OED!  
Just a suggestion to try the OED if you have access to it.  I started 
with "blackberry" and the number of related berry names, and the 
convolutions of the alleged or denied relationships, is 
staggering/hilarious! 

OED:  Blackberry.  
1. The fruit of the bramble (Rubus fruticosus) and its varieties.  This 
being the commonest wild fruit in England is spoken of proverbially as 
the type of what is plentiful and little prized.  ca. 1000 Aelfric Gloss. 
- - In Wr.-Wulcker Voc. 139 "Flani, uel mori, blaceberian."   
3. Now, in the north of England and south of Scotland, the Black Currant 
(Ribes nigrum) the 'blackberry' of sense 1. being there called 
'Brambleberry'; formerly, in some localities the Bilberry or Blaeberry; 
also, according to some, but perhaps erroneously, the sloe or fruit of 
the Blackthorn.  1567 Maplet Gr. Forest....1597 Gerard, Herbal We in 
England [call them] Worts, Whortleberries, Black-berries, Billberries...

I -was- going to copy in all the following entries, which are all linked 
in the definitions, but time has fleeted on me... 

Brambleberry
Bil(l)bery
Blaeberry
Sloe
Blackthorn
Worts
Whortleberry
Hurtleberry

Gerek's prize historical trail:
     Hind (Hynd) berry (ca. 700!) (berries that grow in the forest and 
are assumed to be eaten by the deer which live there) -> Rasp (Frambois) 
- -> Raspberry  -- So there for one source we have seen that says that 
raspberries are not period.

Viking note:  the most commonly occuring term for "blue" in period Norse 
is "blar" and means an almost black shade of blue.  And there is a berry 
name "Blaber" in Old Norse, which Cleasby & Vigfusson translate as 
Vaccinium; and "a(th)alblaber" as Vaccinium myrtilllus (bilberry or 
whortleberry)

Chimene & Gerek
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