snake-weedn.
1. The plant bistort, Polygonum bistorta.In dialect use the name has also been applied to other species of Polygonum, as P. lapathifolium and P. viviparum; and to the plants Mercurialis perennis, dog's mercury, and Cicuta maculata, an American hemlock.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Polygonaceae (dock and allies) > [noun] > bistort and allies
adderwortOE
arsesmarta1300
persicarya1400
persicaria?a1450
polygonya1500
buckwheat1548
polygonum1562
passions1568
bistort1578
oysterloit1578
goat's wheat1597
peachwort1597
plumbago1597
redshank1597
snake-weed1597
dragonwort1656
smartweed1787
patience dock1796
red-legs1820
passion dock1828
smartgrass1837
mud knotweed1845
jointweed1866
tear-thumb1866
pinch-weed1883
knotweed1884
sachaline1901
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 323 Bistorta is called in English Snakeweede.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 322 Broad leafed Snakeweed.
1601 R. Chester Loves Martyr 90 Dwarfe gentian, Snakeweed, and sommer Sauory.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Bistorte, Bistort,..Snakeweed.
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 284 Mountebanks..instead of Mandrakes..sell the Roots of Bryony or of Snake-weed.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. 327 Snakeweed, Polygonum.
1852 C. Morfit Art of Tanning, Currying, & Leather-dressing (1853) 40 Certain annual plants—as the septfoil and bistort, or snake-weed.
1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. Feb. 424 The rhizome of snake-weed..is successfully used by the Lithuanian peasantry as a prophylactic in cases of bite by rabid animals.
2. = snake-root n. 1.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > antidote > [noun] > antidotes to snake-bite > plant or plant-derived
snake-wood1598
snake-weed1631
snake-root1635
contrayerva1648
Virginia snake-root1694
senega1738
mungo root1741
guaco1834
master weed1843
1631 J. Winthrop Hist. New Eng. (1825) (modernized text) I. 62 He always carried about with him match and a compass, and in summer time snake-weed.
1671 W. Salmon Synopsis Medicinæ iii. xxii. 392 Snakeweed. The root of the Virginian cures the Plague, poyson, Pox [etc.].
1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Fryars-Balsam Infuse in it..one Ounce of Virginia Snake-weed cut small.
1853 R. Dunglison Med. Lexicon (ed. 9) Aristolochia Serpentaria,..Virginia Snakeroot,..Snake-weed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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