Forms: 1 walh-, weal-, wal-, wælwyrt, vealvyrt, 3, 6 walwurt, 4–7 walwort (5 -wourte), 6 walworte, -woort, (wolworte, walworth), 5 welleuort, wallewort, 6 wallwurte, 6– wallwort. [OE. wealhwyrt, f. wealh, a (Celtic or Roman) foreigner, a ‘Welshman’ (see WELSH a.) + wyrt herb, plant, WORT sb.1
It is very unlikely that wealh in this word has the same import as in wealh-hnutu WALNUT, where it is equivalent to ‘exotic’; no reason can be shown why the Dwarf Elder should have been called ‘the foreign herb.’ More probably the name, like its later synonyms DANEWORT, DANES’-BLOOD, DANEWEED, expresses the popular belief that this plant was a product of soil fertilized by the carnage of battle. When the ‘Welshman’ was succeeded by the Dane as the foe on English soil, the plant supposed to be a native of battlefields received a new name. It is possible, though not certain, that the occasional OE. form wælwyrt is not a variant of wealhwyrt, but a separate word, f. wæl slaughter, the slain in battle (see WAL). Cf. LICH-wort (literally ‘corpse-plant’), which in the earliest known example (c. 1450) denotes the Dwarf Elder, though it was soon afterwards misapplied (through misinterpretation of its synonym wallwort: cf. 2 below) to the Pellitory of the Wall. It is very remarkable that in Swedish the Dwarf Elder is locally called Danskablod (Danes’ blood), mannablod (men’s blood), mannaört (ört = WORT sb.1) and valört; in the last name the first element may correspond either to OE. wealh ‘Welshman’ or to OE. wæl slaughter; the latter is the more probable supposition, as the early battles of the Swedes were not fought against Celts or Romans. Kilian’s alleged obsolete Flemish waleworte is suspicious, because Kilian cites the English word.]
1. The caprifoliaceous plant Sambucus Ebulus, also called Dwarf Elder, Ground Elder, Danewort, Danes’ Blood, and Daneweed. It has a nauseous taste and an offensive odor, and was formerly valued as a styptic.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), E 11. Ebulum walhwyrt. Ibid., I. 184. Intula, uualhwyrt.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 30. Wið ðeore, ealhtre, wælwyrt, woduweaxe [etc.]. Ibid., 302. Ebule vel eobulum, Veal vyrt vel ellenvyrt.
c. 1265. Voc. Plants, in Wr.-Wülcker, 555/10. Ebulum, i. eble, i. walwurt.
a. 1400–50. Stockh. Med. MS., 185. Lesse walwourt (ebullus minor). Ibid., i. 304, in Anglia, XVIII. 302. Take … jws of walwort & of morele. Ibid., 321, 303. Take walwort-rotys, styf & starke.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc. (1910), 3. Þer is a naturel vertu in walwort þat moste wele restreyneþ blode of woundes.
c. 1450. Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 51/2. Ebulus uel Ebula, gall. eble, angl. welleuort.
a. 1491. J. Rous, Hist. Reg. Angl. (1716), 104. Videre etiam possumus … in villagiis juxta Warwicum, ubi circa maneria populi erant trucidati [by the Danes in 1016], ex sanguine hominum ibi interfectorum herbam ebuli, id est, Walwort, habundanter crescere, quæ ex ebullitione sanguinis humani naturaliter originem trahit.
1541. Bk. Properties Herbs, C vij. Ebulus minor. Thys is the less Wolworte. It is somewhat like to Walworte.
1650. [W. Howe], Phytol. Brit., 35. Ebulus Chamæacte, sive Sambucus humilis, in agris & cœmeteriis. Wallwort, Dwarfe Elder, or Daneweed.
1778. G. White, Selborne, To Barrington, 3 July. Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or danewort.
¶ 2. Erroneous uses. Through misunderstanding of the first element (as if WALL sb.1) the name has been applied in Herbals, Dictionaries, etc. to the Pellitory of the Wall, and other plants growing on walls. As the word PELLITORY has a double origin, partly repr. L. parietāria (f. pariēs wall) and partly repr. L. pyrethrum, the mistaken identification of wallwort with the Pellitory of the Wall led to the further error of applying the name to the Pellitory of Spain (Anacletus Pyrethrum). The application of the name to the Comfrey (Symphyton) in quot. 1567 is due to confusion with G. wallwurz (said to be from wallen to heal wounds), whence Da. waalwortel, Sw. vallört, vallgras.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 43. Let hym take the roote of Piretrum, that is Walworte in hys mouth, and chawe it.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 63. Walwort the Greekes cal Symphyton … It helpeth and putteth away bloud spitting.
1857. Anne Pratt, Flower Pl., V. 33. Common Pellitory … The herb was formerly called Wall-wort.
