> Emaelivpeith David J. Peterson 'sa <dedalvs@...>:
>> This is what I like about LRM. Let's take "strawberry", for example.
>> When I was creating my handout, I included "strawberry" in my
>> examples along with "boysenberry", etc., as a word composed of
>> "berry" plus a meaningless (or unpredictable) prefix. My girlfriend
>> then pointed out to me that the "straw" in strawberry comes from
>> how strawberries are grown. I was flabbergasted. And furthermore,
>> the word changed for me forever that day. Now in my head I
>> have a story for "*straw*berry", whereas before, I had none.
>
> Wikipedia calls that particular etymology (of which there are several)
> a "folk etymology" --
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry#Etymology
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strawberry#Changed_image_in_the_etymology_section
>
>
> OED doesn't know anything about protecting strawberries with straw:
>
> "[OE. stréaw-, stréow, stréa-, stréuberi{asg}e, f. stréaw STRAW n.1 +
> beri{asg}e BERRY n.
>
> "No corresponding word is found in any other Teut. lang. The reason
> for the name has been variously conjectured. One explanation refers
> the first element to STRAW n.1 2, a particle of straw or chaff, a
> mote, describing the appearance of the achenes scattered over the
> surface of the strawberry; another view is that it designates the
> runners (cf. STRAW n.1 3).
>
> "The view of Kluge, that OE. stréaw- in streawberi{asg}e is cogn. w.
> L. fr{amac}gum strawberry, is not phonologically satisfactory, and is
> also open to objection on other grounds.]"
>
> However, even if *none* of these explanations are accurate, I may
> indeed view strawberries differently now that I have competing
> etymologies floating around in my head. :P