different between very vs berry

English

Etymology

From Middle English verray, verrai (“true”), from Old French verai (“true”) (Modern French vrai), from assumed Vulgar Latin v?r?cus, alteration of Latin v?r?x (“truthful”), from v?rus (“true”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh?- (“true, benevolent”). Cognate with Old English w?r (“true, correct”), Dutch waar (“true”), German wahr (“true”), Icelandic alvöru (“earnest”). Displaced native Middle English sore, s?r (“very”) (from Old English s?r (“grievous, extreme”) (Compare German sehr, Dutch zeer), Middle English wel (“very”) (from Old English wel (“well, very”)) (Compare German wohl, Dutch wel, Swedish väl), and Middle English swith (“quickly; very”) (from Old English sw?þe (“very”). More at warlock.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?v??i/
• Rhymes: -?ri
• Homophone: vary (in some dialects)

Adjective

very (not generally comparable, comparative verier, superlative veriest)

1. (literary) True, real, actual.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act II, Scene 2,^[1]

     […] I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 27:21,^[2]

     And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

   • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916, pp. 32-33,^[3]

     The very essence of truth is plainnesse, and brightnes; the darknes and crookednesse is our own.

   • 1659, Henry Hammond, A Paraphrase and Annotations upon All the Books of the New Testament, London: Richard Davis, 2nd edition, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3, verse 19, p. 517,^[4]

     […] they that think to be wiser then other men, are by so much verier fools then others, and so are discerned to be.

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington, p. 30,^[5]

     I looked on the consideration of publick service, or publick ornament, to be real and very justice: and I ever held, a scanty and penurious justice to partake of the nature of a wrong.

   • 1855, Chambers's Journal, page 257:

     […]  : he has become a very democrat. He disdains not to be seen in the back-parlour of the petty tradesman, or the cleanly cottage of the intelligent mechanic. He raises his voice in the cause of progress; […]

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
2. The same; identical.
3. With limiting effect: mere.
   • 2004, Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health, Penguin (?ISBN):

     Given the degree of fear and loathing inspired by the very thought of a fat body in America today, it is important to emphasize that all of the medical information in the counterfactual world I have just sketched is itself quite factual.

Usage notes

• very is used exclusively attributively and never predicatively.

Synonyms

• (same, identical): ilk (Scotland, Northern England), selfsame

Translations

Adverb

very (not comparable)

1. To a great extent or degree.

   Synonyms: greatly, drastically, extremely

   • Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
2. Conforming to fact, reality or rule; true.

   Synonyms: truly, actually, authentically

3. (with superlatives) Used to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.

Usage notes

• When used in their senses as degree adverbs, "very" and "too" never modify verbs (except in some dialects influenced by Chinese: see citations).

Synonyms

• (to a great extent): ever so, main (dialectal), mighty, sore (archaic), swith (dialectal), way too, eminently

Translations

Anagrams

• ev'ry

Malagasy

Adjective

very

1. lost
2. (archaic) enslaved

Middle English

Alternative forms

• verai, veray, verra, verray, verre, verrei, verrey, verri, verry
• werai, werrai, wery

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French verai.

Adjective

very (comparative verier)

1. true

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:very.

Adverb

very

1. very

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b??i/, enPR: b?'ri
• Rhymes: -?ri
• Homophones: bury, Barry (in accents with the Mary–marry–merry merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English berye, from Old English ber?e, from Proto-West Germanic *ba?i, from Proto-Germanic *bazj?.

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær.

The slang sense “police car” may come from the lights on the vehicles’ roofs.

Noun

berry (plural berries)

1. A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.
2. (botany) A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.
3. A coffee bean.
4. One of the ova or eggs of a fish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Travis to this entry?)

5. (slang, US, African-American) A police car.
6. (US, slang, dated) A dollar.
   • 1921, Collier's (volume 67, page 365)

     Four rounds and Enright still on his feet and a hundred and fifty thousand berries gone if he stays two more!

Usage notes

Many fruits commonly regarded as berries, such as strawberries and raspberries, are not berries in the botanical sense, while many fruits which are berries in the botanical sense are not regarded as berries in common parlance, such as bananas and pumpkins.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (ber?)
• ? Thai: ??????? (b??-rîi)

Translations

References

Verb

berry (third-person singular simple present berries, present participle berrying, simple past and past participle berried)

1. To pick berries.

   On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying, whether we wanted to go or not.
2. To bear or produce berries.

Usage notes

• Unlikely to be used to refer to commercial harvesting of berries.

Derived terms

• berrying

Etymology 2

From Middle English ber?e, berghe, from Old English beor?e, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow.

Alternative forms

• berye, berie

Noun

berry (plural berries)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A mound; a barrow.

Etymology 3

From Middle English bery (“a burrow”). More at burrow.

Noun

berry (plural berries)

1. (dialectal) A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.
2. An excavation; a military mine.

Etymology 4

From Middle English beryen, berien, from Old English *berian (found only in past participle ?ebered (“crushed, kneaded, harassed, oppressed, vexed”)), from Proto-West Germanic *barjan, from Proto-Germanic *barjan? (“to beat, hit”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?erH- (“to rip, cut, split, grate”).

Cognate with Scots berry, barry (“to thresh, thrash”), German beren (“to beat, knead”), Icelandic berja (“to beat”), Latin feri? (“strike, hit”, verb).

Verb

berry (third-person singular simple present berries, present participle berrying, simple past and past participle berried)

1. (transitive) To beat; give a beating to; thrash.
2. (transitive) To thresh (grain).

Anagrams

• Bryer