2876: A Berry [Confusing] Problem Nov 5, 2024

In Modern Hebrew, תות (tut) means ‘strawberry’, but in Arabic توت (tut) at least colloquially refers to blueberries. In Persian, Georgian, and Aramaic, the word by default from the same root means ‘mulberry’, and indeed most of the languages from the former Russian, Ottoman and Persian empires’ spheres of influence use this root to mean ‘mulberry’ . This would have been the origin of the word, also appearing in numerous Indian languages; given the mulberry’s East Asian origins, that is not by itself surprising. What is more interesting is the fact that modern Semitic languages used the term to generically refer to berries, and then eventually that coalesced around one or another different type. In Arabic in particular, the word is used in combination to just mean ‘-berry’ such as توت العُليق (tut aleulyq) for raspberry/blackberry or توت أرضي  (tut ardeiyy) for ‘strawberry’, literally “(mul)berry of the ground”.