Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Er... about those berries...

 

I was amused to see this list over at Raconteur Press's Substack.  Click the image for a larger view.



I've used literally all of them - they're more common in English-English than in American-English.  To one, however, there hangs a tail (you should pardon the expression).

Shortly after I came to this country, thirty years ago, I noticed a number of references to berries that I hadn't encountered in South Africa.  There were blueberries, and white mulberries, and more.  However, although I occasionally heard the term "dingleberry", I never saw one.  Intrigued, I asked a family one day (with whom I was staying for a few days) where I could find "dingleberries".

You can imagine my puzzlement when the father cracked up laughing, the mother had to leave the table with her hands clasped to her face and her shoulders shaking from suppressed merriment, and the two daughters blushed red as roses.  When Dad stopped laughing, he explained the true meaning of the word ( for the benefit of non-American readers, it's the third meaning of the noun in the list provided).

My innocence shattered, I declined the opportunity to sample a dingleberry pie . . .






Peter


2 comments:

Charles Craig said...

You might be surprised at how many of those words are Gaelic...

SiGraybeard said...

While I've heard of virtually all of them, I've used virtually none of them. Maybe once or twice, decades ago.