local. Forms: 1 winberiʓe, 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. wínberiʓe; cf. WINEBERRY) by association with WHIN1.] The bilberry or whortleberry.
a. 1100. in Napier, OE. Glosses, 132/5194. Bacciniarum, winberiʓena.
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 Burnley woode, iiijd.
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. Miss 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.
