Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHER'RY, n.¹ [Fr. cerise; L. cerasus; It. ciriegia; Port. cereja; Sp. cereza; Arm. geresen D. kars, or kriek; G. kirsche; Sw. kirsbar; Dan. kirsebær; so named, it is said, from Cerasus, a city in Pontus, near the Euxine, whence the tree was imported into Italy.]

The fruit of a tree, a species of Prunus, of which there are many varieties, as the red or garden cherry, the red heart, the white heart, the black cherry, the black heart, and several others. The fruit is a pulp inclosing a kernel. It is related that this fruit was brought from Cerasus in Pontus to Italy, after the defeat of Mithridates by Lucullus, A.R. 680, and introduced into England by the Romans, about 120 years afterward, A.D. 55. Barbadoes cherry, is the genus Malpighia, of several species. The berries are red, cherry-shaped, acid and eatable. Bird cherry, is a species of Prunus, the common laurel, or lauro-cerasus. – Lee. Also the Prunus Padus. – Encyc. Cornelian cherry, is the fruit of the Cornus, cornel-tree or dogwood. It is a small, acid, cherry-like, eatable berry. Dwarf cherry, is the fruit of a species of Lonicera, or honey-suckle. Hottentot cherry, is the fruit of a species of Cassine. The fruit is a trispermous berry of a dark purple color. Winter cherry, is a name of the fruit of the Physalis, a genus of many species. It is a berry of the size of a small cherry, inclosed in an inflated, bladder-like calyx. This name is also given to a species of Solarium. – Fam. of Plants.