Definition of WHIMBERRY

whimberry

Meanings

Plural: whimberries

Noun

  • The bilberry or whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus).

Origin / Etymology

From earlier winberry, apparently a variant of wineberry (Middle English winberie) with regular shortening of the first vowel before a consonant cluster; in wineberry, this was prevented or reversed due to analogy.
The assimilation of /nb/ to /mb/ seen in some forms is to be expected (compare hemp < Old English henep). Other forms show the influence of unrelated words; the consonantism of forms with initial wh- is probably due to the influence of whin, while windberry clearly represents remodelling as wind + berry.

Scrabble Score: 22

whimberry is not valid in Scrabble (US) TWL Dictionary
whimberry is not valid in Scrabble (MW) Merriam-Webster Dictionary
whimberry is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 0

whimberry is not valid in Words With Friends