Refine this word faster
Dogberry
//ˈdɔɡˌbɛɹi// noun
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The berry of the dogwood.
- 2 A pompous, foolish or self-important official.
"It would be interesting to know how many village Dogberries there were like Thomas Law, the constable of Quendon, Essex, whose reaction in 1651 on being informed of a robbery was to call on the astrologer, William Hills, ‘with an intent to hear what he might say, so that he might make his search accordingly’."
- 3 Clintonia borealis (yellow clintonia)
Etymology
Etymology 1
See dogwood and berry. Compare also dog rose. Compare German Hundbeere (“bittersweet”), Ancient Greek κυνόσβατος (kunósbatos, “evergreen rose”), Lithuanian šùnobelė (“buckthorn”), Italian mela canina (“mandrake”).
Etymology 2
From Dogberry, the name of a character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1600).
See also for "dogberry"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: dogberry