sloe
UK /ˈsləʊ/ · US /ˈsloʊ/ noun
Forms sloes
- noun The small, astringent, wild fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).
- noun The tree Prunus spinosa.
- noun Any of various other plants of the genus Prunus, as a shrub or small tree, Prunus alleghaniensis, bearing dark-purple fruit.
Synonyms
Allegheny plum Alleghany plum Prunus alleghaniensis blackthorn Prunus spinosa
Etymology
From Middle English slo, sla, sloo, from Old English slā, slāh, from Proto-West Germanic *slaihā, from Proto-Germanic *slaihǭ, *slaihwō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₃y- (“bluish”). Doublet of Sliwa.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small, bitter, wild European plum, the fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa); also, the tree itself.
Etymology [OE. slo, AS. sla; akin to D. slee, G. schlehe, OHG. sl$ha, Dan. slaaen, Sw. sl, perhaps originally, that which blunts the teeth, or sets them on edge (cf. Slow); cf. Lith. sliwa a plum, Russ. sliva.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sloe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details