That was early!

[venta]

I've just picked, and eaten, a ripe bramble.

Incidentally: spikey thorny bushes are called brambles. The fruits that grow on them are called brambles, also known as blackberries.

Or so I think. One of our sysadmins at work insists that only the bushes are called brambles - to the extent of being adamant that bramble jelly is made from the leaves and the shoot-tips. He's clearly insane.

However. How common is it to call the fruits brambles ? Would you do it ?

Comments

Re: Well, according to us...

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

It's worth pointing out that the OED (or any dictionary) is a bad place to look for specialist terminology.

In particular, it doesn't do very well in cases like this might be, where a term is used frequently for a single species or small group of species, and less frequently for a wider class. For instance, compare a dictionary with a bird-watching guide.

Re: Well, according to us...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I also wasn't querying what the word meant (well, it turns out I was, as I didn't realise you could use "bramble" for raspberry canes and loganberry hatstands as well).

I accept that all these definitions are valid, I just wanted to know how commonly people used them.

wimble, could the OED start including usage stats, please ?

Re: Well, according to us...

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Hatstands? You're just making it up now.

Re: Well, according to us...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nah... just trust me :) I was right about the canes, wasn't I ?

Re: Well, according to us...

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

See my link later which is from a project which matches common terms with latin names.