medicinable, a. and n.
(ˈmɛdsɪnəb(ə)l)
Forms: 4–7 medycinable, 4–6 medicynable, 5 medecynnabil, medycynable, 6 medcynable, medsonable, mediscenable, 7 medicineable, 6–9 med'cinable, 4– medicinable.
[a. OF. medecinable, f. medeciner: see medicine v. and -able.]
A. adj.
1. Having healing or curative properties; = medicinal. Obs. exc. poet. or arch.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. xxi. (Tollem. MS.), Olyues and medicynable herbes and swete spices. c 1407 Lydg. Reason & Sens. 5630, I saugh the..herbes ful medycynable. c 1425 St. Christina xi. in Anglia VIII. 124/1 Hee bonde vppe hir legge wiþ medecynnabil cloþes. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxii. (1870) 177 Welles of water the whych..be mediscenable for sycke people. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 146 Cowe milk is most medicinable. 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 351 Drop teares as fast as the Arabian Trees Their Medicinable gumme. 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 10 Many..haue beene restored by that medicineable Climate to their former..health. 1796 Coleridge To J. Cottle, Herbs of medicinable powers. 1842 Sir A. De Vere Song of Faith 72 Paradise Of priceless and most medicinable fruits. 1885 Pater Marius II. 218 Soothing fingers had applied to his hands and feet..a medicinable oil. |
b. fig. and in figurative context.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 21 Medicinable comyning wiþ þe kirk or sacraments of it. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 422 Be þi medycynable tong I trow at God shall delyver me from my moste errour. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. ii. 150 Pacience the medsonable meane, To take all fautles falles, reioisinglie. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. ii. 33 Some griefes are medcinable, that is one of them, For it doth physicke Loue. 1798 J. Hucks Poems 146 In memory's stores, I seek the med'cinable balm. |
† 2. Of or belonging to medicine. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 318/1 Medcynable belongyng to physicke. 1586 Bright Melanch. xl. 268 It yeeldeth no medicinable tast to the mouth. 1607 Markham Caval. i. (1617) 57 Then you shall seek by medicinable means to recouer them. |
† 3. medicinable finger = leech-finger; medicinable ring, app. a blessed ring supposed to cure diseases. Obs.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 313 The iiijthe fynger, whiche is callede the fynger medicinable. a 1483 Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 23 Item, to the king's offerings to the crosse on Good Friday, out from the Countyng-house, for medycinable rings of gold & sylver. |
† B. n. A medicinal substance. Obs.
| 1683 Tryon Way to Health 560 A great number of Medicinables..of our own growth, proper for the Cure of those Diseases that are generated in our Elevation. |
Hence † medicinableness.
| 1660 N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. i. (1682) 167 The medicinableness of every one [of these fruits] is so affix'd to its own Branch that it is not communicated to another. |