▪ I. yarrow, n.
(ˈjærəʊ)
Forms: 1 ᵹear(e)we, 5 ȝarwe, ȝarow(e, 5–6 yarow, 6 yarowe, yarrowe, 6– yarrow.
[OE. ᵹearwe = Du. gerw (:—*garwe), OHG. gar(a)wa (G. garbe), of uncertain etym.]
The common name of the herb Achillea Millefolium (N.O. Compositæ), also called milfoil and nose-bleed, frequent on roadsides, dry meadows, and waste ground, with tough greyish stem, finely-divided bipinnate leaves, and close flat clusters of flower-heads of a somewhat dull white, often varying to pink or crimson; sometimes used medicinally as a tonic. Also extended to other species of Achillea. b. Applied with defining words to plants of other genera. soldier's yarrow, Stratiotes aloides. water yarrow, a name for various water plants with finely divided leaves, as Ranunculus aquatilis, Hottonia palustris, and the genus Myriophyllum. (Cf. milfoil 2.)
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) M 204 Mirifillo, ᵹearwe. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 354 Wyl on meolcum þa readan ᵹearwan. c 1050 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 297/31 Millefolium, ᵹearewe. a 1400–50 Stockholm Med. MS. 202 Millefoly or neseblod or ȝarwe. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 711/26 Hoc millefolium, ȝarow. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 536/2 Ȝarowe, myllefoyle, herbe for nese blederys. 1503 Dunbar Thistle & Rose 83 Full craftely conjurit scho the Yarrow. 1546 Langley tr. Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. xvii. 32 b, Mercurie founde the vse of Moly, Achilles Yarowe, Esculapius, Panace. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. ci. 142 Water Milfoyle or Yearrow. Ibid. 143 Knights Milfoyle: souldiers Yerrow. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxxvi. 678 Water Milfoile, or water Yarrow, hath long and large leaues. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 203 The Yarrow, where-with-all he stops the wound-made gore. 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. Table Hard Wds., Yarrow, is an hearbe called the water-Violet, and growes in Lakes, or marrish grounds. 1784 J. Twamley Dairying Exempl. 91, I take yarrow to be an ill favoured Plant for Cheese where it prevails much in Land. 1789 J. Pilkington View Derbysh. I. viii. 348 Hottonia palustris. Water Violet. Water Yarrow. 1866 Mrs. J. H. Riddell Race for Wealth xxiii, A lawn in which I have gathered yarrow. |
▪ II. † ˈyarrow, a. dial. Obs.
[dial. var. argh (OE. earᵹ); cf. Sussex yar (W. D. Cooper Sussex Gloss. 1853).]
(See quot.)
| 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Yarrow, fearefull, faint-hearted. |