fraughan

English

Alternative forms

• fraochan
• fraghan, frawn (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish fraochán (“blueberry, bilberry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɒhən/, /fɹɔːn/

Noun

fraughan (plural fraughans)

1. (Ireland) The bilberry or whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus).
   • 1824, Rory O'Reilly, Retrospection‎^[1], Dublin: J. Carrick & Son, page 2:

     Unlike the Wicklow Gold Mines at Mount Croughan, / Where thrives that Lilliputian Tree, the Fraughan.

   • 1906, W. M. Letts, “Paudeen in the Woods”, in Temple Bar‎^[2], volume 1, London: Macmillan & Co., page 553:

     His bare feet, as they trod the heather and fraughan beneath them , sent a thrill of primitive ecstacy to his expectant mind.

   • 2018 May 3, Margaret Hickey, Ireland’s Green Larder: The Definitive History of Irish Food‎^[3], Unbound, →ISBN, page 38:

     Over the centuries and over the seasons, fruit gathering became woven into the fabric of Irish rural life and the fraughan, being the first of the wild berries to ripen, was the occasion for an outing.