Word of the Week – Cranberry

With Thanksgiving behind us but Christmas still ahead, let’s look at some other holiday words that you may never have paused to wonder about! And this week, we’ll start with cranberry.

Do you like cranberries? Cranberry sauce? Cranberry juice? I wouldn’t call them a favorite all on their own, but I love the many uses of the cranberry…especially in my overnight eggnog French toast that I make for Christmas morning every year. (Topped with both cranberries and pecans and streusel and then baked!)

But where did the word come from?

The fruit native to North America was called by the Algonquian tribe popokwa. When European settlers came to America and saw the bright red berries that grew in low, wet areas, they thought they bore a resemblance to a similar fruit in Germany, which was called the kraanbere, literally “crane berry.” Why was it called that? Etymologists scratch their heads a bit over that one, but the best guess is that the plants’ stamens resemble the beaks of cranes.

Early accounts of the berries from the English also called them “bear-berries,” because bears “devour it very greedily.” They likened them to currants. And apparently, cranberry tarts were quite popular. The American cranberry is a bit bigger than the European variety, but those newcomers had no trouble integrating them into their dishes!

I kind love the bear-berry name. Too bad that one didn’t stick around. 😉