Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “blueberry” come from?

Blueberry combines English blue with English berry, where blue derives from Middle English bery, Old English byrġan, and Proto-Indo-European roots including bʰel- meaning to shine or swell.

blueberry (English): An edible round berry, belonging to the...

Definitions

  1. An edible round berry, belonging to the...

Ancestry of “blueberry”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishBlueA letterman at Oxford or Cambridge; A member of...
2Middle Englishblēwe—
3Anglo-Normanblewblue
4Middle Frenchbleublue
5Old Frenchblöe—
6Latvianblāvusaccusative plural masculine form of blāvs
7Old High Germanblāoblue, dark, grey; blue; yellow
8Proto-West Germanicblāublue
9Proto-Germanicblēwazblue; a dark bluish or grey colour, black
10Proto-Indo-Europeanbʰlēw-yellow, blond, grey

Words derived from “blueberry”

  • blueberrying
  • blueberried
  • blueberrylike
  • ブルーベリー
Every word from Proto-Indo-European bʰlēw- →