southernwood Bot.
(ˈsʌðənwʊd)
Forms: (see southern a. and wood n.); also 3 southren-, 5 sothren-, sutherne-, 5–6 sothern-, 7 soothern-, south-hern-. β. 2 suþer-, 5 soþer-, sother-.
[OE. s{uacu}ðerne southern a. 5 b, and wudu wood n.]
1. A hardy deciduous shrub or plant, Artemisia Abrotanum, having a fragrant aromatic smell and a sour taste, orig. native to the south of Europe, and formerly much cultivated for medicinal purposes. Also, the genus of Compositæ of which this is the type.
| α c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 250 Ðeos wyrt þe man abrotanum, & oðrum naman suðerne wuda nemneþ, ys tweᵹea cynna. a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 12 Averoyn, southrenwode. a 1400 Stockh. Med. MS. i. 12 in Anglia XVIII. 295 Aueroyne he take..Queche is callyd soþernwode also. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 571 Caruca, suthernewode. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 467/1 Sowtherne woode, herbe,..abrotonum. 1548 Turner Names Herbes 7 Sothernwod is hote and dry in the thirde degree. c 1550 H. Lloyd Treas. Health X iij, Sothernewood & freshe grece..do drawe oute spriges, thornes, and other thinges. 1614 Gorges Lucan ix. 406 That which Southernwood we call, Whose smoake the serpents so distast. 1671 J. Webster Metallogr. xv. 211 Resembling the shrub Southernwood, thick set with little twigs leaning one to another. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 121 Southern-wood..is now almost out of use in Medicine. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxvi. (1794) 386 Southernwood is shrubby, erect, and has setaceous leaves very much branched. 1833 Tennyson Mariana in South Poems 20 Not a breath..moved the dusty southernwood. 1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. vii. (1870) 144 Some leaves consist of little more than veins, as in..fennel and southernwood. |
| β c 1150 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 544 Abrotanum, suþerwude. a 1400 Sqr. lowe Degre 33 The sother-wood, and sykamoure. c 1460 Promp. Parv. (Winch. MS.) 426 Sotherwode, herbe, abrotanum. |
b. With distinguishing epithets, denoting various species of
Artemisia, or plants resembling these (see
quots.).
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 66 b, Some call it Santonia, and female Southernewood. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 1 There be two sortes of Sothrenwood (as Dioscorides sayth) the one called female Sothrenwood, or the great Sothrenwood, the other is the male kinde. c 1710 Petiver Cat. Ray's Eng. Herbal Tab. xx, Wild Southernwood. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Abrotanum, The Lesser and Narrower-leav'd Southernwood. 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Santolina, female southernwood. Ibid. s.v. Santolina, The male southernwood. 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 428/1 There are 23 species of artemisia, only 4 of which are natives of Britain, viz. the campestris, or field-southernwood [etc.]. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 709 Artemisia maritima. Sea Southernwood. Sea Wormwood. 1853 Mayne Expos. Lex. 89/1 Artemisia Santonica,..the Tartarian southern-wood, or wormwood, or the worm-seed plant. 1857 Henfrey Bot. 320 Artemisia Abrotanum is Garden Southern-wood. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
southernwood-leaved,
southernwood twig.
| 1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 389 S. Abrotanifolius. Southernwood-leaved Groundsel. 1849 Diss. Silk Manuf. (Shanghae) 10 The southern-wood twigs are of a cooling nature. 1887 D. C. Murray & Herman Traveller Returns vii. 98 In each bowl a bound bunch of southernwood twigs. |
So
† ˈsouthernwort.
Obs.| 1510 Stanbridge Vocabula (W. de W.) D ij b, Abrotinum, sotherne worte. 1530 Palsgr. 273/2 Southerne⁓worthe. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. clxxiii. 482 Abrotanum, which we cal in English southernwort. |