drupelet

English

WOTD – 7 January 2020

Etymology

The outer layer of a blackberry is made up of little drupelets

A diagram of an aggregated fruit, showing drupelets

From drupe (“stone fruit”) +‎ -let (diminutive suffix). Compare Late Latin drupella (“small ripe olive”).[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹuːplɪt/, /-lət/
- Audio (UK) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹuplɪt/, /-lət/
Hyphenation: drupe‧let

Noun

drupelet (plural drupelets)

(botany) One of the small drupe-like subdivisions which compose the outer layer of certain fruit such as blackberries or raspberries. [from mid 19th c.]
Synonym: drupel
It is best to pick the berries while all drupelets are of a consistent, dark red coloration.
The passengers on the chock-full boat were packed across the deck like drupelets.
- 1858, Asa Gray, “How Plants are Propagated or Multiplied in Numbers”, in Botany for Young People and Common Schools. How Plants Grow, a Simple Introduction to Structural Botany. […], New York, N.Y.: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, & Co., OCLC 505717616, section IV (Fruit and Seed), § 1 (Seed-vessels), paragraph 244, page 81:
  Aggregated Fruits are close clusters of simple fruits all of the same flower. The raspberry and blackberry are good examples. In these, each grain is a drupelet or stone-fruit, like a cherry or peach on a very small scale.
- 1931, A[lbert] S[pear] Hitchcock, “Fruits and Seeds”, in Field Work for the Local Botanist, Washington, D.C.: Published by the author […]; composed and printed at the Waverley Press, Inc. […], OCLC 1131468420, page 22:
  The fruits of the genus Rubus (blackberry, raspberry) are aggregates of small drupes (drupelets) upon the receptacle of a single flower, each drupelet from a single pistil.
- 2017, Bernadine C. Strik, “Growth and Development”, in Harvey K. Hall and Richard C. Funt, editors, Blackberries and Their Hybrids (Crop Production Science in Horticulture; 26), Wallingford, Oxfordshire; Boston, Mass.: CABI, →ISBN, page 29:
  Each fertilized pistil/ovule will develop into a fleshy drupelet containing one seed (a pyrene). Erect and semi-erect blackberry cultivars produce fruit with relatively large pyrenes compared to those of trailing blackberries.

Alternative forms

druplet

Related terms

drupaceous
drupe
drupel
drupelike

Translations

one of the small drupe-like subdivisions which compose the outer layer of certain fruit

Breton: drupennig m
Catalan: drupèola f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 小核果 (xiǎohéguǒ)
Dutch: steenvruchtje (nl) n
Estonian: vili (et)
French: drupéole (fr) f
German: Steinfrüchtchen n
Hungarian: aszmag
Italian: drupa (it) f, nocciolo (it) m
Serbo-Croatian: plodić m, koštunica (sh) f
Spanish: drupeola f
Welsh: drwpled (cy) m

References

“drupelet, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1897; “drupelet, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.