And wow, half of those I haven't heard of. And some of them I know by different names.
Heidelbeeren bilberries
Those are "Blaubeeren" in German and "blueberries" in English, for me. "Heidelbeeren" and "Bickbeeren" are passive vocabulary. Not sure whether I've heard "bilberries" before. (And "Bickbeeren" is one of those theoretical words that I know from lists of [regional?] synonyms but that I've never actually come across in real life.)
Holunderbeeren elderberries
That made me think of the elderflower syrup that often comes out at our family gatherings, and "Doesn't that say 'Flieder' on it?".
A quick trip to Wikipedia later, and apparently Sambucus is not just "Holunder" but also (in North Germany) "Flieder" and (in Altbayern and Austria) "Holler".
Which, incidentally, explains the first part of the line from the children's song: "Sitzen unterm Hollerbusch, machen alle 'Husch, husch, husch'". Never really thought about what a "Hollerbusch" might be, before.
Kranbeeren = Moosbeeren Moosbeeren cranberries
I can't recall having heard either of those German words(*); perhaps the berries were, traditionally, not that popular or common.
Nowadays, you see them in quite a variety of things, but in my experience, they're always "Cranberries".
(*) (I've probably read them on the odd time that I wondered what cranberries are "really" called in German, but promptly forgotten.)
Moltebeeren cloudberries
Aka lakka (though not in German).
The first time I heard of them was on a game designed to get people familiar with Euro coins (so sometime around 2000–2001, I suppose), where they mentioned the cloudberries on some Finnish euro coins.
I've also seen cloudberry jam at IKEA; fairly pricy (apparently because fruit have to be picked by hand and, IIRC, the stuff only grows wild), and supposedly a delicacy. Having bought a jar of the stuff, all I can say on the latter count is that it must be an acquired taste.
Preiselbeeren lingonberry
For some reason, I've always been tempted to translate "Preiselbeeren" with "cranberries". I'll have to remember "lingonberry".
(Perhaps Preiselbeeren and cranberries fulfil similar cultural roles? What do people in the US eat with baked camembert, for example, or with venison?)
Stachelbeeren gooseberry
Incidentally, how do you pronounce the English word?
Dictionary.com has one source claiming only /u/ in the first syllable and another source claiming only /ʊ/. (FWIW, it's /ˈɡʊzb(ə)rɪ/ for me.)
no subject
Heh.
And wow, half of those I haven't heard of. And some of them I know by different names.
Heidelbeeren bilberries
Those are "Blaubeeren" in German and "blueberries" in English, for me. "Heidelbeeren" and "Bickbeeren" are passive vocabulary. Not sure whether I've heard "bilberries" before. (And "Bickbeeren" is one of those theoretical words that I know from lists of [regional?] synonyms but that I've never actually come across in real life.)
Holunderbeeren elderberries
That made me think of the elderflower syrup that often comes out at our family gatherings, and "Doesn't that say 'Flieder' on it?".
A quick trip to Wikipedia later, and apparently Sambucus is not just "Holunder" but also (in North Germany) "Flieder" and (in Altbayern and Austria) "Holler".
Which, incidentally, explains the first part of the line from the children's song: "Sitzen unterm Hollerbusch, machen alle 'Husch, husch, husch'". Never really thought about what a "Hollerbusch" might be, before.
Kranbeeren = Moosbeeren
Moosbeeren cranberries
I can't recall having heard either of those German words(*); perhaps the berries were, traditionally, not that popular or common.
Nowadays, you see them in quite a variety of things, but in my experience, they're always "Cranberries".
(*) (I've probably read them on the odd time that I wondered what cranberries are "really" called in German, but promptly forgotten.)
Moltebeeren cloudberries
Aka lakka (though not in German).
The first time I heard of them was on a game designed to get people familiar with Euro coins (so sometime around 2000–2001, I suppose), where they mentioned the cloudberries on some Finnish euro coins.
I've also seen cloudberry jam at IKEA; fairly pricy (apparently because fruit have to be picked by hand and, IIRC, the stuff only grows wild), and supposedly a delicacy. Having bought a jar of the stuff, all I can say on the latter count is that it must be an acquired taste.
Preiselbeeren lingonberry
For some reason, I've always been tempted to translate "Preiselbeeren" with "cranberries". I'll have to remember "lingonberry".
(Perhaps Preiselbeeren and cranberries fulfil similar cultural roles? What do people in the US eat with baked camembert, for example, or with venison?)
Stachelbeeren gooseberry
Incidentally, how do you pronounce the English word?
Dictionary.com has one source claiming only /u/ in the first syllable and another source claiming only /ʊ/. (FWIW, it's /ˈɡʊzb(ə)rɪ/ for me.)