cherry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small, round, red or dark fruit with a stone in the middle.

   She put a single cherry on top of the cake.

2. 2
   adj

   Of a bright or deep red colour.

   He drove a shiny cherry red sports car.

3. 3
   adj

   In excellent or like-new condition.

   He restored the old car until it was in cherry condition.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Cherry comes from Old French cherise, which initially entered English as cheris or cherise. Speakers apparently mistook the final sound for a plural ending and formed cherry as the name for a single fruit.

From Middle English chery, cherie, chirie, from Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) and Old English ċiris, ċirse (“cherry”), from Proto-West Germanic *kirsijā, from Vulgar Latin ceresia, derived from Late Latin ceresium, cerasium, from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerásion, “cherry fruit”), from κερασός (kerasós, “bird cherry”), and ultimately possibly of Anatolian origin (the intervocalic σ suggests a pre-Greek origin for the word). Doublet of cerise, Giresun, and kirsch.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary