Cherry

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈt͡ʃɛɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɛɹi

Origin

From Middle English cheri (loanword from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French cherise ("cherry")- compare Old French cerise, which gave modern French cerise and later English cerise from this). Compare Old English ciris ("cherry"), (from Late Latin ceresia), which died out after the Norman invasion and was replaced by the French-derived word.

Dictionary.com

The Middle English singular is a back-formation from Old Northern French cherise ("cherry") (interpreted as a plural), from Vulgar Latin ceresia, a reinterpretation of the neuter plural of Late Latin ceresium, from Latin cerasium (cerasum, cerasus ("cherry tree")), from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerasion, "cherry fruit").

Full definition of cherry

Noun

1. A small fruit, usually red, black or yellow, with a smooth hard seed and a short hard stem.
2. Prunus subg. Cerasus, trees or shrubs that bears cherries.
3. The wood of a cherry tree.
4. cherry red
5. (slang) Virginity, especially female virginity as embodied by a hymen.
• 2004, Nick Wright, Treading Ground #47 – ThrowbackIn any case it’s ironic, considering there hasn’t been a cherry in the white house since Chelsea Clinton was fourteen.
6. (graph theory) A subtree consisting of a node with exactly two leaves.
• 2004, Suleyman Cenk Sahinalp, S Muthukrishnan, Ugur Dogrusoz, Combinatorial Pattern MatchingNon-isomorphism is detected whenever the algorithm finds a cherry $v\_1\; \backslash in\; T\_1$…
• 2005, Lior Pachter, Bernd Sturmfels, Algebraic Statistics for Computational BiologyStep 3: Output the tree T. The edge lengths of T are determined recursively: If (x,y) is a cherry connected to node z as in Step 2…

Usage notes

Cherry includes, but is not limited to, the following species, of the genus Prunus: avium, cerasus, mahaleb, mazzard, pennsylvannica, pumila, serotina, serrulata, and virginiana. Prunus also includes plums.

Derived terms

Adjective

1. Containing or having the taste of cherries.
2. Of a bright red colour.
3. (informal, often of cars) In excellent condition; mint condition.
• 2003, John Morgan Wilson, Blind Eye, St. Martin’s Press, ISBN 0312309198, page 108:A few years earlier, I’d restored my ’65 Mustang convertible to cherry condition—fire engine red, with matching tuck-and-roll—and I wasn’t surprised that it drew attention.

Derived terms

Related terms

• cerise