huckleberry

huckleberry

English

Vaccinium ovatum, known as evergreen huckleberry, winter huckleberry or California huckleberry

Etymology

Probably an alteration of Middle English hurtilbery (“whortleberry”). American English from 1660s.[1]

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌkl̩ˌbɛɹi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌkl̩b(ə)ɹi/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

huckleberry (plural huckleberries)

1. A small round fruit of a dark blue or red color of several plants in the related genera Vaccinium and Gaylussacia.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

2. A shrub growing this fruit.
3. A small amount, a short distance, as in the phrase huckleberry above a persimmon.
   • 1967, Richard Boyd Hauck, The Literary Content of the New York Spirit of the Times, 1831-1856, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, page 88:

     Porter preferred prose to poetry. Prose seemed to him to be a concrete, practical form of expression. But poetry, as he informed a poet who signed his name “Evergreen,” was “a huckleberry beyond us.”

4. (slang) A person of little consequence.
5. (US, slang) The person one is looking for; the right person for the job.

   I'm your huckleberry.

Usage notes

While some Vaccinium species, such as Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, are always called huckleberries, other species may be called blueberries or huckleberries depending upon local custom. Usually, the distinction between them is that blueberries are white on the inside in most cases compared to huckleberries which vary from red to purple inside with a couple dozen tiny seeds.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• above one's huckleberry
• bear huckleberry (Gaylussacia ursina)
• black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata, Vaccinium membranaceum)
• blue huckleberry (Gaylussacia frondosa)
• box huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera)
• bush huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa)
• California huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
• dwarf huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa)
• evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
• fool's huckleberry (Menziesia ferruginea)
• garden huckleberry (Solanum nigrum)
• hairy-twig huckleberry (Gaylussacia tomentosa)
• he-huckleberry (Cyrilla racemiflora)
• highbush huckleberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
• huckleberry above a persimmon
• huckleberry above one's persimmon
• huckleberry oak (Quercus vaccinifolia)
• I'm your huckleberry
• red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)
• squaw huckleberry (Vaccinium stamineum, Vaccinium caesium)
• tree huckleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)
• winter huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
• woolly huckleberry (Gaylussacia mosieri)

Translations

fruit — See also translations at buckberry

Blackfoot: aapaawapsspi Finnish: valemustikka (Gaylussacia); puolukka (fi), pensasmustikka (fi) (Vaccinium) German: Heidelbeere (de) f Maori: huapēre Unami: min

shrub — See also translations at buckberry

Cherokee: ᎫᏩᏯ (guwaya) Finnish: valemustikka (Gaylussacia); puolukka (fi), pensasmustikka (fi) (Vaccinium)

small amount

Finnish: hiven (fi)

Verb

huckleberry (third-person singular simple present huckleberries, present participle huckleberrying, simple past and past participle huckleberried)

1. (intransitive) To pick huckleberries.

See also

• huckle

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “huckleberry”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• *huckleberry at OneLook Dictionary Search