summer haw
- noun
- US
:
mayhaw
- Grandmother made delicious jelly from the tart berries of the summer haw.
Examples
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The old orchard was filled with summer haw trees, their branches heavy with ripe, red fruit.
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Local farmers sell jars of summer haw preserves at the market every spring.
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I picked some summer haw berries yesterday.
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The summer haw tree grows abundantly in the South.
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Grandmother made delicious jelly from the tart berries of the summer haw.
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Local farmers sell jars of summer haw preserves at the market every spring.
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The old orchard was filled with summer haw trees, their branches heavy with ripe, red fruit.
Synonyms
A small tree from the southern United States that has red, tart fruit used for jam
A small tree in the southern United States that makes red tart fruit used to make jelly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'summer' (the warm season) with 'haw' (a thorny shrub with red berries), so the meaning 'a hawthorn associated with summer/fruiting in summer' is directly derivable from its constituents. Seasonal modifier + plant noun is a transparent, compositional pattern familiar across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand this refers to a summer-fruiting hawthorn.
Etymology
Summer haw is named for the hawthorn tree whose tart, red fruit ripen in summer. The word haw is an old word for the hawthorn 'berry', so the name points to a tree with juicy fruit used for jellies.
