true blackberry

2.0

A bush that grows sweet black or dark purple berries you can eat

noun

: mora verdadera

The hedgerows were heavy with true blackberry bushes bursting with fruit in late summer.

Examples

She made jam using only true blackberry varieties collected from the countryside.
We picked some true blackberries from the garden.
Botanists study the differences between the true blackberry and its lookalikes in North America.
The true blackberry is a favorite among foragers.
The hedgerows were heavy with true blackberry bushes bursting with fruit in late summer.
She made jam using only true blackberry varieties collected from the countryside.
The true blackberry is a favorite among foragers.

Synonyms

blackberry

vstrue blackberry

13 1.0

A large sweet black fruit made of many small round parts

refers to the living European plant and its varieties rather than the fruit

blackberry bush

vstrue blackberry

1 1.3

A bush with thorny stems that makes sweet dark berries you can eat

is the species term focusing on European varieties rather than general woody plant form

Rubus fruticosus

vstrue blackberry

8.2

A blackberry bush that bears sweet black or dark purple berries people eat

is the common, nontechnical name used instead of scientific labeling

Surface Forms

true blackberry singular

true blackberries plural

Morphology

true + blackberry

The meaning is directly compositional: 'true' (genuine) modifies 'blackberry' to indicate the genuine/common blackberry plant or species. A B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the real/common blackberry without needing idiomatic knowledge, so the sense is predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

True blackberry comes from old plant names where true marked the original wild blackberry, the common bush with black fruit that grows in country hedges. So 'true blackberry' now means the original European species of blackberry, not a lookalike introduced from elsewhere.