Brown as a berry

This expression first appears in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the late 14th century. Chaucer uses the expression twice. Once in the Prologue to describe a palfrey (horse) that was brown as a berry and again in the Cook’s Tale to describe a person. Some say Chaucer was referring to some agricultural grain or other, which in those days was also known as a “berry” rather than the fruit with which we now associate with the word.