Plural of dogberry; the berries of the wild cornel or dogwood tree, often used historically for food and medicine.
Compound of 'dog' (here meaning common or wild) and 'berries,' from Old English 'berie.' The 'dog' prefix was commonly used in medieval English to denote wild or inferior versions of plants.
In Shakespeare's time, 'dogberries' were a real food source that poor people foraged, but today most people know the word only from 'Much Ado About Nothing' as the name of a comic character.
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