Forms: 5 barbere, 6–7 barbery, -berie, -berrie, 6–8 berbery, 6–9 barbary, 9 berberry, 8– barberry. [ad. med.L. barbaris (in Promp. Parv.), berberis, F. berberis, 16th c. berbere, Sp. berberis, It. berberi, of unknown origin and history. (An Arabic barbārīs, sometimes cited, is a transcription of the Latin employed by Arabian botanists; there is no such word in native dictionaries, Arabic or Persian. Cf. the earlier BARBARYNE.]
1. A shrub (Berberis vulgaris) found native in Europe and N. America, with spiny shoots, and pendulous racemes of small yellow flowers, succeeded by oblong, red, sharply acid berries; the bark yields a bright yellow dye. Also the genus Berberis, of which several American species are cultivated as ornamental shrubs in Europe.
c. 1420. Anturs Arth., vi. Vndur a lefe sale Of box and of barbere.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 684. The leaues and fruite of Barberies are of complexion colde.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Berbery, or Barberry-Bush.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 31. The spines of the common Berberry are a curious state of leaf, in which the parenchyma is displaced, and the ribs have become indurated.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 131. In most of the species of Barberry the terminal leaflet only is developed.
2. The berry of this tree.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 58. Digestyves of Choler: Endyve, Lettyse … Berberyes.
1625. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 62. Lumpe sugar for conserve of barbaries.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, v. 79. Garnish with barberries and lemon.
1864. H. Ainsworth, Tower Lond., 85. A piquant sauce of oiled butter and barberries.
3. attrib., as in barberry-bush, -tree, etc.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 684. With the greene leaues of the Barberie bush they make sawce to eate with meates.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 266. The popular notion amongst farmers, that a barberry tree in the neighbourhood of a field of wheat often produces the mildew.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 353. An old barbary tree.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., Introd. 103. The tangled barberry-bushes hang their tufts of crimson berries.
