Dogberry

//ˈdɔɡˌbɛɹi// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The berry of the dogwood.
  2. 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. 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).

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: dogberry