# cranberry morpheme

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A bound morpheme within a complex word that is a fossil and whose meaning is opaque to the present speakers of the language.

## Etymology
From the cran- of cranberry as an archetype. Cran- is from Low German Kraan (“crane”), but is now a bound morpheme, hence an example of a cranberry morpheme.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cranberry-morpheme