Word of the Day: Berry and Bury
berry
ber-ry / bĕr′ē ; plural berries
noun
1. a small, juicy stoneless fruit, regardless of its botanical structure
Naturally sweet and juicy, berries are low in sugar and high in nutrients – they are among the best foods you can eat.
Joel Fuhrman, 1953 –
2. a simple fruit with a pulpy wall in which two or more seeds are embedded, such as a grape, blueberry, currant, tomato or banana
There is a devil in every berry of the grape.
English proverb
3. a dried kernel or seed, such as a coffee bean or wheat
But what is coffee, but a noxious berry, Born to keep used-up Londoners awake?
Charles Stuart Calverley, 1831 – 1884
4. an egg of a lobster, crayfish or fish
The Commissioners tell us[…] that the lobster is in its very best condition when it is laden with its berry[…]
From The Quarterly Review, Volume 144 (1877)
verb
1. to pick or gather berries
Sometimes my sister would go berrying with me, but often I was on my own.
From “Yankee Summer: The Way We Were: Growing Up in a Rural Vermont in the 1930s” by Lewis Hill, 1924 – 2008
2. to grow or produce berries
Bring colour to your garden with berrying shrubs.
bury
bur-y / bĕr′ē
bur-y / bĕr′ē
verb
1. to inter; to place in a grave or tomb, usually with a ceremony
Do not be like a miser who saves for those who will bury him.
Malagasy Proverb
2. to cover with earth
But there was something I liked about the idea of those seeds buried so deep having at least a chance to emerge.
From “Just Listen” by Sarah Dessen, 1970 –
As the seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace.
Mark Nepo, 1951 –
3. to cover in order to hide or conceal
The greatest talents often lie buried out of sight.
Plautus, 254 BC – 184 BC
4. to embed
The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground…they are buried deep in our hearts.
Alexandre Dumas, 1802 – 1870
5. to engross in deep concentration
Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell’s dark door we lay;
But we arise by grace Divine
To see a heav’nly day.
From “Hymn 88” by Isaac Watts, 1674 – 1748
6. to end; to abandon
It’s a poor bureaucrat who can’t stall a good idea until even its sponsor is relieved to see it dead and officially buried.
Robert Townsend, 1920 – 1998
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
