vulnerary

From Latin vulnerārius, from vulnus (“wound”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvʌl.nəɹ.əɹ.i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvʌl.nɚ.ɛɹ.i/

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vulnerary (comparative more vulnerary, superlative most vulnerary)

1. Useful or used for healing wounds; curative, healing.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XXVIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. , →OCLC:

     Rebecca examined the wound, and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed, informed her father that […] there was nothing to fear for his guest’s life.

   • 1902, William James, “Lecture XX: Conclusions”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. , →OCLC, footnote 1, page 496:

     Take, for example, the famous vulnerary ointment attributed to Paracelsus.

2. (archaic, rare) Causing wounds; wounding.

• Restricted in modern use primarily to works on ethnobotany and traditional medicine.

vulnerary (plural vulneraries)

1. A healing drug or other agent used in healing and treating wounds.
   • 1757, John Rutty, A Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters, Comprehending the Most Celebrated Medicinal Waters, both Cold and Hot, of Great-Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy, and several other Parts of the World, London: Printed for William Johnston, at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church-Yard, →OCLC, page 494:

     On the ſurface of the water there floats a liquid bitumen, although it be every day ſcummed off, as it doth on the lake Aſphaltites in Judæa: The Inhabitants uſe it as pitch: it is alſo found to be an excellent vulnerary, and good in curing old cacoethic and ſcrophulous ulcers.

• vulnerable