Plural of hagberry; the fruit of the bird cherry tree, small dark berries used in traditional medicine and folk remedies.
From Old English 'hægge' (hawthorn or similar berry-bearing shrub) + 'berry.' The word preserves an archaic plant name from Germanic languages.
Hagberries were so important to medieval herbalists that entire chapters of healing texts were devoted to them—they were used to treat everything from coughs to broken bones.
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