Forms: 1 winber(i)ʓe, 3 winberi, erron. wind-, 6 wynberry. β. 6 wyneber(r)y, 7– wineberry. [OE. wínberiʓe = OS. wînberi, OHG. wînberi (MHG. -ber(e, G. weinbeere), ON. vinber (cf. Goth. weinabasi): see WINE sb.1, BERRY sb.1 MF. wĭnberi normally represents the OE. word; wineberry is a new formation.]

1

  † 1.  A grape. Obs.

2

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. vii. 16. Cwyst þu, gaderað man winberian of þornum?

3

c. 1050.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 451/2. Medus, winberʓe te huniʓe awylled.

4

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 276. Of te druie sprintles bereð winberien? Ibid., 296. Þet beoð þe erest prokunges þet sturieð þe winȝeardes, he seið, ure Louerd, þet beoð ure soulen, þet mot muche tilunge to uorte beren windberien.

5

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 4468. Me-thoght i sagh a wintre,… O þis tre apon ilk bogh Me-thoght hang winberis inogh.

6

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 142 b. Smouth lyke a grape or wynberry.

7

  β.  1535.  Coverdale, 2 Esdras ix. 21. A wynebery of the grapes.

8

[1783.  Lemon, Engl. Etymol., Pref. p. vi. note. Our Saxon ancestors had Grapes; but, having no name for them, they were obliged to call them Wine-berries.]

9

  attrib.  c. 1265.  Voc. Plants, in Wr.-Wülcker, 558/20. Omfacium, i. winberi stones.

10

  2.  Applied formerly or now locally to various berries.

11

  e.g., † The bilberry or whortleberry; dial. the currant, the gooseberry; Austral. (a) = TOOT sb.5, TUTU, (b) Polyosma cunninghamii; a raspberry of China and Japan, Rubus phœnicolasius.

12

14[?].  True Thomas, in R. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads (1806), II. 20. The darte, and also the damsyn tre. The fygge, and also the wynne bery.

13

1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, Suppl., Wyneberries is Vaccinia.

14

1612.  Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 201. Wineberies ijd.

15

1622.  in Burton, Hist. Scot., lxvi. (1870), VI. 67. Gooseberries, Strawberries,… and a kind of red wineberry.

16

1703.  Thoresby, Lett. to Ray (E.D.S.). Wineberries,… not grapes, but gooseberries.

17

1824.  Carr, Craven Gloss.

18

1866.  Treas. Bot., Wineberry.… Ribes rubrum. —, New Zealand, a name given by the colonists to Coriaria sarmentosa.

19

1889.  Maiden, Useful Pl. Australia, 590. Polyosma Cunninghamii, Wineberry, and Feather-wood in Southern New South Wales.

20

1900.  Westm. Gaz., 14 Aug., 8/2. I have grown the Japanese wineberry for some years.

21