wormwood
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See also: Wormwood
English
Etymology
From Middle English wormwode, a folk etymology (as if worm + wood) of wermode (“wormwood”), from Old English wermōd, wormōd (“wormwood, absinthe”), from Proto-West Germanic *warjamōdā (“wormwood”). Cognate with Middle Low German wermode, wermede (“wormwood”), German Wermut (“wormwood”). Doublet of vermouth.
Pronunciation
Noun
wormwood (countable and uncountable, plural wormwoods)
- An intensely bitter herb (Artemisia absinthium and similar plants in genus Artemisia) used in medicine, in the production of absinthe and vermouth, and as a tonic.
- Synonyms: grande wormwood, absinthe, mugwort, artemisia
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- But as I said, / When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple / Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, / To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Jeremiah 9:15:
- Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
- c. 1864, John Clare, We passed by green closes:
- Blue skippers in sunny hours ope and shut
Where wormwood and grunsel flowers by the cart ruts […]
- 1897, Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Cliff Klingenhagen”, in Children of the Night:
- Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine
And one with wormwood.
- (figurative) Something that causes bitterness or affliction; a cause of mortification or vexation.
- 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 57:
- The irony of this reply was wormwood to Zeluco; he fell into a gloomy fit of musing, and made no farther inquiry […] .
Derived terms
Translations
Artemisia absinthium
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figurative: that which causes bitterness
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Further reading
Artemisia absinthium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Artemisia absinthium on Wikispecies.Wikispecies 
Artemisia absinthium on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
