whortleberry
UK /ˈwɜːtl̩bəɹi/ · US /ˈwɝtl̩bɛɹi/ noun
Forms whortleberries
- noun Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry or blue whortleberry);
- noun Vaccinium vitis-idaea (lingonberry or red whortleberry);
- noun Vaccinium uliginosum (bog whortleberry or bilberry).
- noun A berry of one of these shrubs.
Synonyms
hurt hurtle whortle bush whort bilberry whinberry blaeberry Viccinium myrtillus European blueberry
Etymology
An alteration of Middle English hurtilbery, hurtil-beri (see English hurtleberry), analysable as whortle + berry. Compare English huckleberry.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [AS. wyrtil a small shrub (dim. of wyrt wort) + E. berry. See Wort, and cf. Huckleberry, Hurtleberry.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whortleberry”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details