DCHP-1 Online

pembina (berry) [< Cdn F< Algonk.: cf. Cree nipiminān; see 1853 quote]

• n. a shrub, Viburnum opulus; also the reddish, tart berry of this shrub. Various early spellings.

  See also: highbush cranberry  

  • Though pembina is established as the popular spelling, the form pimbina is often preferred by botanists.
  • For another meaning, see note at mooseberry.

  • 1760  The Pemine, another plant peculiar to this country, is a different shrub, growing along the sides of rivulets, and in meadows, which also bears a clustering fruit of a very sharp and stringent taste.
  • 1800  (1897)  . . . others went in search of fruit, of which they found great plenty, such as red plumbs, panbinas, and grapes.
  • 1853  The name, however, by which it is known among the Indians of Red River is "anepeminan," from "nepen," summer, and "minan," berry. This has been corrupted by the fur traders and voyageurs into "Pembina": hence, the name of a river which runs into the Red and also the name of the celebrated but unsuccessful settlement of "Pembina," formed by Lord Selkirk many years ago.
  • 1921  The girls join their mothers in picking berries . . . swampberries, saskatoonberries, pembinaberries, pheasantberries, bearberries, and snakeberries.
  • 1958  . . . Pembina berries . . . we also called high-bush cranberries.
  • 1966  Luckily for him, it was the fall of the year and these [berries] were plentiful, especially the pembina or high-bush cranberry. . . .