damson plum

6.1

A small dark purple plum or the tree that grows it with a tart taste often used for jam

noun
/ˈdæmzən plʌm/

: ciruela damascena

I love the tart flavor of damson plums when they are made into preserves.

Examples

Each time he arranged part of the hold, more of these parcels appeared: a crate of damson plums in syrup from an old woman in Conshohocken.

Fiction book (1999)
The chef used damson plums to create a tangy sauce for the duck dish.
She made a delicious pie using fresh damson plums from the farmer's market.

Synonyms

damson

vsdamson plum

1 8.8

A small dark purple plum often used for jam and cooking

is the name covering both the fruit and the tree rather than only fruit

damson plum tree

vsdamson plum

7.9

A small plum tree that makes tart fruit called damsons used for jam

also means the fruit as well as the tree

Prunus domestica insititia

vsdamson plum

Specialized

9.9

A type of plum tree grown for fruit you can eat, like greengages and damsons

is the common cooking name narrower than the botanical subgroup

How Tart

lemon

318 1.0

damson plum

6.1

apple

583 1.0

plum

50 1.0

banana

153 1.0

Surface Forms

damson plum singular

damson plums plural

Morphology

damson + plum

The meaning is directly compositional: 'damson' denotes a specific plum variety and 'plum' denotes the fruit, so together they clearly mean a type of plum (or its tree). This noun+noun naming pattern is common and easily inferred by a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Damson plum comes from the old word 'Damascene', meaning 'from Damascus'. One popular story says these small, dark plums were brought from that city and English speakers shortened 'Damascene' to damson. That's why damson plum today means a small, tart plum often used for jams and preserves.