On the etymology of strawberry

Abstract

ABSTRACT The word strawberry (Old English streawberige) is peculiar to English among the Germanic languages. There is no consensus on the etymology of the word. Several theories have been suggested: 1) the appearance of the achenes of the berry, supposedly looking like straw (= motes): 2) the runners of strawberry plants compared to straws; 3) strawberries supposedly growing where there is much straw (= grass or hay); 4) strawberries growing at ground level as straw spread as litter; 5) the practice of putting straw under strawberry plants to prevent the berries from rotting; 6) the custom of children to string wild strawberries on a straw of grass. This article favors the last of these explanations. This custom is still well known in Scandinavia and can, through various sources, be shown to have been practiced earlier in a large part of Europe, including Britain.