Cranberry morpheme

A cranberry morpheme is one that exists only in one bound form, such as the "cran-" of "cranberry." It is unrelated to the word "cran" meaning a case of herrings, and though it actually comes from "crane" (the bird), it is not at all clear why. Phonetically, the first morphemes of "gooseberry" and "raspberry" also count as cranberry morphemes, as they don't occur by themselves, but the spelling gives an obscure clue to their origin. Compare these to "blackberry," which has two obvious unbound morphemes.

See also

• Morphology