tutsan
(ˈtʌtsən)
Forms: α. 5 totsane, toutsayne, 6 totsan, tutsane, 6– tutsan, 7 tutesain; β. 6 tutson, -sone, -som, -some.
[app. of F. or Anglo-F. origin. But the mod.F. toute-saine is not in Cotgr. (who gives tutsan, perh. from Lyte), and is known to Hatz.-Darm. only from 1762, when it appears in the Dict. of the Académie, whereas the name is found in Eng. c 1400–50.]
A name applied to various plants on account of their alleged healing virtues; formerly to Agnus Castus, and, in French, to Sanicle (Hatz.-Darm.); now, in Eng., to a shrubby species of St. John's-wort, Hypericum Androsæmum, with strongly aromatic foliage and berry-like fruit; formerly esteemed as a vulnerary. Also called park-leaves.
| α a 1400–50 Stockh. Med. MS. 157 Totsane or parkleuys: agnus castus. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 562/24 Agnus castus,..toutsayne. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 13 Androsaemon. Androsaemon is the herbe (as I dooe gesse) whiche we call totsan, and the Poticaries falsly cal Agnus castus. 1552 Elyot (ed. Cooper), Androsæmon, an hearbe called sainct Johns woort, or rather Tutsane, and groweth in gardeyns, and no where els. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xlv. 66 Tutsan so called in French and in English. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. clii. 435 The leaues laide vpon broken shins,..healeth them, and many other hurtes and griefes, whereof it tooke his name Tout saine, or Tutsane,..healing all things. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 206 The yarrow,..The healing Tutsan then and Plantan for a sore. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. i. Table A v, Agnus Castus, of some called Tutesaine, is an hearbe with reddish leaues, and sinewie like Plantaine. 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. v. lii. 575 Androsæmum Matthioli. Matthiolus his Tutsan. This Tutsan (for other English name I know not well, what it may have, unlesse you would call it a great S. Iohns wort, because it is so like it). 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Androsæmum, Tutsan or Park-leaves. This Plant grows wild in many Parts of England. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxv. (1794) 374 Garden Tutsan is evidently of this genus (Hypericum). 1859 R. Thompson Gard. Assist. (1878) 649 Hypericum Androsæmum, tutsan, sweet amber. |
| β 1552 Elyot (ed. Cooper), Ascyrum, the herbe, which of some is called Peter worte: other would haue it to be Tutson. Ibid., Cruciata, of some is taken for the herbe called Tutsome. 1575 Turbervile Venerie 232 Take a handfull of Tutsome, a handfull of Rewe [etc.]. |
b. attrib. and
Comb.| 1804 C. Smith Conversations, etc. I. 172 The Apocynum, or tutsan leaved dog's bane. 1872 H. Kingsley Hornby Mills I. 6 The golden Tutsan St John's wort lit up the darkness of the shrubbery. |