wartwort
(ˈwɔːtwɜːt)
[f. wart n. + wort1.]
A name for Euphorbia Helioscopia, E. Peplus, and E. Peplis (Sea Wartwort). Also applied to other plants, as Chelidonium majus and Senebiera Coronopus. (Cf. wart-weed, wart n. 6.)
| a 1400 MS. Arund. 42 f. 67 Þe same erbe [‘Eliotropia’] is called verrucaria, wrotwort, by cause þat it destruyth & fordoth wrottys. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 9 Anabulla,..wartwort. Ibid. 185 Titimallis,..wertewert. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 60 Peplis..is very like vnto wartwort but that it is shorter, thicker and spred vpon the grounde. It may be called in english sea wartwurt. 1562 ― Herbal ii. 154 b, This kinde is called..Wartwurt; it maye also be called son spourge. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxxii. 363 Peplos..is called..Wartwurt,..also Pety Spurge. 1665 Lovell Herball (ed. 2) 464 Sea wart-wort, see Sea spurge. 1725 Bradley's Family Dict., Petyt-Spurg, otherwise called Wartwort. 1802 G. V. Sampson Statist. Surv. Londonderry App. 21 Sun-spurge, or wartwort; the juice is white, caustic, and is applied successfully to take off warts. 1842 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 172/2 The spurge or wartwort..yields a milky juice applicable for the purpose [of tempera-painting]. |