The word "elderberry" is a 16th-century English compound joining "elder" (the tree Sambucus) with "berry" (from Old English berie, a small fruit). The tree-name "elder" descends from Old English ellærn or eldern, but the deeper etymology is uncertain. Some scholars connect it to Old English ellen (courage, zeal), perhaps reflecting the tree's vigorous growth. Others propose a connection to a root meaning "hollow," referring to the elder's characteristic pithy, easily hollowed stems — a practical feature exploited for centuries in making pipes, whistles, and blowguns.
The elder tree (Sambucus nigra in Europe, S. canadensis in North America) occupied a position of remarkable cultural importance in medieval and early modern European folk belief. Almost every European culture attributed supernatural properties to the tree. In English folklore, the Elder Mother (or Elder Tree Woman) was a spirit believed to inhabit the tree; cutting elder wood without first requesting permission
The practical uses of the elder tree were as extensive as the superstitions surrounding it. Elderberries were made into wine, cordial, jam, and syrup. The flowers were used in elderflower champagne, fritters, and tea. The hollow stems served as blowpipe toys for children and as bellows for fire
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), the French soldier's insult "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" introduced the word to millions of English speakers who might otherwise never have encountered it. The elderberry reference was carefully chosen: elderberry wine was associated with rural, unsophisticated home brewing, making it a class-based insult implying the target's father was a peasant drunk.
The German name Holunder (elder tree) may share a root with Holle, the name of a goddess from Germanic mythology associated with winter and the domestic arts. This connection, if genuine, would link the elder tree to the divine feminine in both Germanic and Nordic traditions — a theological association that the medieval Christian church attempted to suppress by associating the elder with Judas, who was said to have hanged himself from an elder tree.