masterwort
(ˈmɑːstəwɜːt)
[f. master n.1 + wort n., after G. meisterwurz; the same sense is expressed by the 16th c. L. name imperātōria, but the reason for the appellation is not clear.]
a. The umbelliferous plant Peucedanum (Imperatoria) Ostruthium, formerly cultivated as a pot-herb, and used in medicine. b. Applied to other genera, as Astrantia (Black Masterwort); the goutweed, ægopodium Podagraria (English or Wild Masterwort); and the American plants Angelica atropurpurea and Heracleum lanatum.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (E.D.S.) 61 The seede of pilletory of Spayne called masterwurt. 1568 ― Herbal iii. 36 It were best to call it after the Duche Maisterwort. The Physicianes of Italye call it Imperatoriam. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. cix. 300 The seconde Imperatoria, or wylde Master⁓wort. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 474 The wilde master-wort called herbe Gerard. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccclxii. 828 Astrantia nigra:..it may be called blacke Masterwoort. 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 141 One dram of root of Masterwort. 1715 J. Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 239 Great black Masterwort. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 189 Angelica, or American Masterwort (Angelica lucida). 1847 Darlington Amer. Weeds & Useful Pl. (1860) 148 Woolly Heracleum..Masterwort. 1866 Treas. Bot. 724/2 Masterwort, English, ægopodium. 1893 M{supc}Carthy Red Diamonds II. 42 Masterwort which in earlier..days was known as ‘the divine remedy’. |