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blackberry n
1 Black crowberry (Empetrum
nigrum); CURLEW BERRY.
1908 TOWNSEND 46 The curlew berry ...
on which the curlew formerly fatted in countless numbers, is called blackberry and is
also made into sauces. 1915 SOUTHCOTT 28 ~ On hills round St John's. Small prostrate
spreading shrub. Leaves with margins recurved to meet at the back. Flowers small,
purplish, growing in the axils of the upper leaves. Berries edible, black. T
141/66-652 The blackberries, o' course you get they there in the summer. 1977
Inuit Land Use 205 Blackberries ... ripen in the summer and fall on both sides of
the bay and on some of the islands.
2 A parasitic growth
(Lernaeocera branchialis) under the gills of cod-fish, resembling a crowberry;
attrib ~ fish, berry fish. Cp BERRY2.
Q 68-3
Berry fish—cod with a red seedy growth under its gills. The growth is usually about
the size of a partridge berry. Q 71-7 Berry fish—a small cod with a red undergrowth
under its gills. Berry fish occur where there is a shortage of food in the water.
3 A pteropod (Limacina helicina) which, when eaten by
the cod, causes a parasitic growth.
T 31/2-464 There'd be things
in the water for the fish, an' there was none o' them about, little blackberries flying
about in the water, what the outside fish lives on. They lives on this kind
o'bait—call 'em the blackberry. T 55/6-64 Labrador fish is nothin' like the fish you
get here. No, different breed altogether. Hardly get one that's fit to eat—smell,
you know; full of what they called blackberries. Q 71-8 On the Labrador Coast blackberry
fish is well known as fish that, having fed on a particular planktonic form, assumes an
offensive odour and colour. 1977 Inuit Land Use 139 Local fishermen have noticed
that, coinciding with the disappearance of cod, there has been an increase in the number
of pteropods, small, round, black creatures, locally called blackberries because they are
the same size as the fruit, floating near the surface of the waters around the seaward
islands... The fish used to eat them.
4 Attrib, comb
blackberry earth: friable soil in which black crowberry thrives, used as
insulation.
M 69-2 Blackberry earth [is so-called] because black
berries grow on it. It is porous and easily dries out before being used in the bins.
Blackberry earth acts as an insulator, helping to keep the vegetables [in the cellar]
warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It was sometimes used between the walls in
houses.
blackberry heath: leaves and twigs of the black
crowberry, used in home remedies.
M 71-43 I steeped some
blackberry heath and gave it to her and after a while her colour began to return.
blackberry more: root of the black crowberry; cp MORE n.
1977 Nfld Qtly Dec, p. 37 The [herring] were cleaned,
pickled, and hung up in the roof. A fire was then started and banked with sawdust and
blackberry mores to put a flavour on them [when smoked].
blackberry turf: ground covering formed by the black
crowberry.
T 391/2--67 That's all was on that island. No woods,
only just the blackberry turf.
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