Hva betyr plantenavna tyttebær og krekling?

Abstract

In Norwegian, cowberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea is called «tyttebær» and crowberry Empetrum nigrum, «krekling». The berries are edible, but cowberries are sour and crowberries are tasteless, and probably both names are pejorative in a humorous way. The prefix in «tyttebær» is a nickname which means woman who is fussing and talking continuously, while «krekling» means weakling, poor creature.