Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Donald EugeneDon, 1936–95, U.S. jazz trumpeter.
noun plural -ries
- any of several trees of the rosaceous genus Prunus, such as P. avium (sweet cherry), having a small fleshy rounded fruit containing a hard stoneSee also bird cherry
- the fruit or wood of any of these trees
- any of various unrelated plants, such as the ground cherry and Jerusalem cherry
-
- a bright red colour; cerise
- (as adjective)a cherry coat
- slang virginity or the hymen as its symbol
- (modifier) of or relating to the cherry fruit or woodcherry tart
c.1300, earlier in surname Chyrimuth (1266, literally “Cherry-mouth”); from Anglo-French cherise, from Old North French cherise (Old French, Modern French cerise, 12c.), from Vulgar Latin *ceresia, from late Greek kerasian “cherry,” from Greek kerasos “cherry tree,” possibly from a language of Asia Minor. Mistaken in Middle English for a plural and stripped of its -s (cf. pea).
Old English had ciris “cherry” from a West Germanic borrowing of the Vulgar Latin word (cf. German Kirsch), but it died out after the Norman invasion and was replaced by the French word. Meaning “maidenhead, virginity” is from 1889, U.S. slang, from supposed resemblance to the hymen, but perhaps also from the long-time use of cherries as a symbol of the fleeting quality of life’s pleasures.