gooseberry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small, round, tart berry, usually green, yellow, or red, used fresh or in preserves and desserts

   She made a sharp, fragrant jam from the ripe gooseberry crop.

2. 2
   noun

   the thorny shrub of the genus Ribes that bears gooseberries

   The old gooseberry beside the wall was heavy with fruit.

3. 3
   noun

   British informal: an unwanted third person accompanying a couple

   I felt like a gooseberry while my two friends whispered to each other.

A compound of goose + berry, recorded in Middle English. Why goose was attached to the fruit is unknown. Proposed links with French groseille or Dutch kruisbes may have encouraged the form, but they remain speculative; the word has no securely established connection with geese.

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