† ˈcloffing Obs.
[App. OE. clufðung(e fem.; ME. clofthounk and cloffynnge are the same word. Bosw.-Toller explains from clufu clove, bulb + þung masc. monkshood or hellebore. Cf. clove-tongue.]
A plant: see quots.
(Cockayne understood the OE. name to mean Ranunculus sceleratus; which is probable, since both clufþung and clufwyrt are glossed by Batrachion, an old name of Ranunculus. But the ME. name seems to mean a hellebore, as in Halliwell's modern entry.)
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 98 Ðeos wyrt þe man sceleratam, and oðrum naman clufþunge nemnað..bið cenned on fuhtum and on wætereᵹum stowum. c 1050 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 295/35 Botracion, clufðung. a 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 189 Vellatrum [? for veratrum, ‘hellebore’] Angl. clof⁓thounk. 14.. MS. version of Macer in Promp. Parv. s.v. Gladone, Do take..þe iij part of þe poudre of ellebre, þat some men clepen cloffynnge. 1847–78 Halliwell, Cloffing, the plant hellebore. |