Editing Gooseberry (section)

== Etymology ==
The ''goose'' in ''gooseberry'' has been mistakenly seen as a corruption of either the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] word {{lang|nl|kruisbes}} or the allied [[German language|German]] {{Lang|de|Krausbeere}},<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wedgwood |first=Hensleigh |author-link=Hensleigh Wedgwood |title=On False Etymologies |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3924121;view=1up;seq=79 |year=1855 |issue=6 |page=69 }}</ref> or of the earlier forms of the [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|groseille}}. Alternatively, the word has been connected to the [[Middle High German]] {{lang|gmh|krus}} ('curl, crisped'), in Latin as {{lang|la|grossularia}}.<ref name="Harper">{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=gooseberry |title=Gooseberry |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper |date=2018 |access-date=21 May 2018 }}</ref> [[File:Illustration Ribes uva-crispa0.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Ribes uva-crispa]]'' by [[Otto Wilhelm Thomé]] (1885), showing the distinctive curl of the flower petals<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Otto Wilhelm Thomé |last=Thomé |first=Otto Wilhelm |year=1885 |title=Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz |trans-title=Flora of German, Austria and Switzerland |language=de }}</ref>]] However, the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' takes the more literal derivation from ''[[goose]]'' and ''[[berry]]'' as probable because "the grounds on which [[plant]]s and [[fruit]]s have received names associating them with [[animal]]s are so often inexplicable that the inappropriateness in the meaning does not necessarily give good grounds for believing that the word is an etymological corruption".<ref name="Harper"/> The [[French language|French]] for gooseberry is {{lang|fr|groseille à maquereau}}, translated as 'mackerel berries', due to their use in a sauce for [[mackerel]] in old French cuisine.<ref name="dt" /> The word first appears in written English in the 16th century.<ref>“Gooseberry, N.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1118486249.</ref> In Britain, gooseberries may informally be called ''goosegogs''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/goosegog |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522042128/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/goosegog |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 May 2018 |title=Goosegog |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press |date=2018 |access-date=21 May 2018 }}</ref>

''Gooseberry bush'' was 19th-century slang for [[pubic hair]], and from this comes the saying that babies are "born under a gooseberry bush".<ref name="dt">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/4736383/QI-Quite-Interesting-facts-about-costermongers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227162435/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/4736383/QI-Quite-Interesting-facts-about-costermongers.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 February 2009 |title=QI: Quite Interesting facts about costermongers |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=23 March 2009 |first1=Molly |last1=Oldfield |first2=John |last2=Mitchinson }}</ref>