Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🥝 A kiwifruit 🌿 A climbing plant
Chinese gooseberry

Chinese gooseberry

3.5
A small fuzzy brown fruit with sour green flesh called kiwifruit
  • noun
  • /ˈtʃaɪniːz ˈɡuːsbəri/
  • Archaic
translation icon : grosella espinosa
  • She had never tasted a Chinese gooseberry until she visited her aunt's farm.

Examples

  • I love eating Chinese gooseberries in the summer.

  • In the 1960s, New Zealand growers began marketing the Chinese gooseberry as kiwifruit.

  • The dessert was topped with slices of Chinese gooseberry for a tangy flavor.

  • Have you tried Chinese gooseberry pie?

  • The Chinese gooseberry is often used in fruit salads because of its unique flavor.

  • When I traveled to New Zealand, I tasted a delicious Chinese gooseberry for the first time.

  • Many people enjoy the sweet and tangy taste of Chinese gooseberries in desserts.

Synonyms

kiwi
vsChinese gooseberry
4 1.0

A small brown fuzzy fruit with bright green flesh and tiny black seeds

emphasizes tart green flesh rather than sweeter taste
kiwifruit
vsChinese gooseberry
1 2.0

A small brown fruit with fuzzy skin, green flesh, and many small black seeds

is the older name now replaced by the modern common name
kiwi fruit
vsChinese gooseberry
1 1.6

An oval brown fruit with fuzzy skin, green inside, and a slightly sour taste, often eaten raw or in desserts

focuses on the fruit identity and its historical name rather than culinary use

Surface Forms

Chinese gooseberry singular
Chinese gooseberries plural

Morphology

Chinese + gooseberry

The compound is a straightforward origin+thing construction: 'Chinese' indicates origin and 'gooseberry' names a type of berry, so a learner who knows both words will infer it denotes a berry (or fruit) associated with China. Although historically the term refers to what is now called the kiwi fruit (which is not a true gooseberry), the meaning is still compositionally transparent and predictable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Chinese gooseberry comes from the words Chinese and gooseberry: it was a small, fuzzy fruit from China that reminded people of a tart gooseberry, so the name came to mean that fruit and was later changed to 'kiwifruit' to sell it abroad.