Forms: α. 1–2, 5–7, 9 dial. wad, 2 waad, 5 Sc. waid, wayde, 5–7 wadde, 6 Sc. vad, 6–8 wade, 7 Sc. wadd. β. 3–4 wod, 4–5 wode, 5–6 wood(e, 6 wo(a)dde, 6–8 woade (7 waude), 6– woad. γ. 5–6, 8 ode, 6–7 oade, 7 oad. [OE. wád = OFris. wêd, MLG., MDu. wêt, wêde (Du. weede), OHG., MHG. weit, weid (G. waid):—*waido- (whence OF. waide, gaide, It. guado), by-form of *waizdo- (whence med.L. waizda, guaisdium, etc., AF. waisde, OF. guesde, F. guède, formerly also voide, vouède, voueide), related to Goth. *wizdila (recorded in L. forms ouisdelem, etc.).
Ulterior connection with OE. weard, werd ‘sandix,’ and (outside Germanic) with L. vitrum, Gr. ἰσάτις is doubtful. The hypothesis of a primitive loan may account for the remarkable phonological variations in pre-Germanic.]
1. A blue dye-stuff prepared from the leaves of Isatis tinctoria (see 2) powdered and fermented: now generally superseded by indigo, in the preparation of which it is still sometimes used.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. (Z.), 72. Hic sandyx, þis wad.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., I. 1058 (Napier 29/2). Ex … iacintho, of wade.
a. 1200. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 544/46. Sandix, wod.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 76. Þin eȝene boþ colblake & brode Riȝt swo ho weren ipeint mid wode.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Former Age, 17. No Madyr welde or wod no litestere Ne knewh.
14[?]. De Artic. Inquir., in Sc. Acts (1844), I. 682/2. Item de tynctoribus Burgensibus ponentibus manus suas in le wadde.
1436. Libel Engl. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 180. The madre and woode that dyers take on hande.
1488–9. Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 10. Wood called Tolowse Wode.
1494. in Somerset Med. Wills (1901), 322. ij mesers of Ode.
1495. Halyburton, Ledger (1867), 45. 3 ton of waid.
1545. Rates of Custome Ho., d j. Woad of goscoyne the pipe .iii. pound vi.s. viii. d. Woad of the Ile of Surrey the ballet x. s. Woad of the Ile of Assorns [= Azores] the ballet x. s.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 200. The Merchaunt straungers … daily brought Oade, Oyle, Sylke,… and other Merchaundyse into this Realme.
1563. Golding, Cæsar (1565), 117. Al the Britons doe dye themselves wyth woade, which setteth a blewish color uppon them.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, II. i. 59. He that respects to get, must relish all commodities alike; and admit no difference betwixt oade and frankincense.
c. 1618. Rates of Marchandizes, F 4 b. Iland or green Woad … Tholoze Woade.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 224. Azores … They affoord much Oade, which has made them most famous and best inriched them.
1715. Garth, Claremont, 91. When Dress was monstrous, and Fig-leaves the Mode, And Quality put on no Paint but Woade.
1800. Maria Edgeworth, The Will, iii. A gentleman who had set up an apparatus for manufacturing woad.
1867. Morris, Jason, VI. 327. Deep dyeing-earths, and woad and cinnabar.
1882. J. South, Dict. Pop. Names Plants, 441. Woad … is manufactured now only at Parsons Drove near Wisbech.
1894. C. Vickerman, Woollen Spinning, 102. The woad cut into small pieces is cast into the vat, which is then filled with water.
fig. 1667. Waterhouse, Fire Lond., 42. This … gives the judgement a tincture, nay, a deep woad of intense displeasure.
† pl. 1598. Stow, Survey, x. 64. The Marchants of Normandie made fine for licence to harbor their woads, till it was otherwise prouided.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 27. They returne wine and Woades, for which is alwaies paide ready Golde.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 75. The King … ordained; That wines and woads from … Gascoigne and Languedocke, should not be brought but in English bottomes.
2. The plant Isatis tinctoria, formerly extensively cultivated for the blue coloring matter furnished by it (see 1). Sometimes called Dyer’s or Garden Woad, and DYER’S WEED. Also applied to other species of the genus Isatis.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 94. Ʒenim wades croppan.
1538. Elyot, Glastum, an herbe lyke to plantayne,… some men englyshe it woadde.
1538. Turner, Libellus, Isatis sive glastum,… uulgus herbam appellat wad. Ibid. (1548), Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 40. Glastum is called … in english wad, & not Ode as some corrupters of the englishe tonge do nikename it. Ibid. (1562), Herbal, II. 11. The diers occupy the garden wadde … in dyenge of wull and clothe.
1585. Procl. agst. sowing of woad, 14 Oct. That no maner of person or persons … shal … breake vp … any maner of grounde … for the … purpose to sowe or plant woade in.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXII. i. II. 114. An hearbe … Glastum, (i. Woad) with the juice whereof the women of Brittaine … annoint and die their bodies all over. Ibid., XXXIII. xiii. 484. These Azurs, receive first a dye, and are boiled with a certaine hearbe … called Oad, the colour and juice whereof Azur is apt to drinke in and receive.
1633. Costlie Whore, I. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. To … make our land beare woad instead of wheate.
1739. Trowell, Treat. Husb., etc., 33. Of Woad or Wade, the best Land for it.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Bedfordshire, Woad, a plant used by dyers, is also cultivated here.
1856. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 77/1. A long and explicit covenant [in a lease] against growing pernicious weeds, such as flax, hemp, woad, [etc.].
b. Wild Woad, the plant Reseda Luteola: = WELD sb.1 1. Bastard Woad = WELD sb.1 1 b.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xlvi. 66. There be two sortes of Woad: the one is of the garden…. The other is wilde Woad.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cxxviii. 396. Of Sesamoides, or bastard Weld or Woade.
1611. Cotgr., Guesde sauvage, wild woad, which growes of it selfe in grounds wherein th’other hath beene sowne; and differs not much from it but in staulke.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 445. Reseda Luteola … Wild Woad. Dyers-weed.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., Cowper Green, iv. Thy wild-woad on each road we see.
3. attrib. and Comb., as woad-blue, -colo(u)r, -farm, † -fat (= vat) -gore (GORE sb.1 1), -house, -lead, -man, -mark, -plant, -planter, -rose, -vat; woad-leaved, -painted adjs. † woad-nut, ? corruptly -net, ? a ball of woad.
a. 1667. Sir W. Petty, in Sprat, Hist. Royal Soc., 289. Nor is Allum used in many Colours, viz. In no *Woad or Indico Blews.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 968. The outmost border of the innermost wings is sky or *woad-colour.
a. 1667. in Sprat, Hist. Royal Soc., 301. An intense Wond-Colour is … of a Damson-colour.
1892. Daily News, 23 July, 5/4. There are now only four *woad farms and factories in the entire kingdom.
1479. Will of Swayne (MS.). *Odefatis.
1496. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing, h ij. Lete woode your heer in an woodefatte a lyght plunket colour.
1569. Bury Wills (Camden), 155. My woadfat coveryngs.
1778. D. Loch, Tour Scotl., 43. Adam Dickson dyer and cloathier…. He works two woad fats.
1856. Morton’s Cycl. Agric., II. 1162. The hands … weed the *woad-fields three times.
1419. Liber Albus (Rolls), I. 335. Qe nulle ne gette estreyin, poudre, fyms, *wodegor, nautre vilenye.
1705. trans. Art of Dying (1913), 350. Sheep should be put into the *Woad grounds to eat up the Grass and Weeds.
1829. [H. Best], Lit. Mem., 456. We rode over the farm to the *woad-houses.
1485–6. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 157. ij s. pro operacione lxxix petr. plumbi operati in j *Wadlede.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 417. *Woad-leaved Centaury.
14[?]. in York Myst., Introd. p. xxvi. *Wadmen.
1799. A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 155. It [sc. the woad] becomes what the woadmen term foxy.
1800. J. Haigh, Dyer’s Assist., 32. Woadman,… the name given to the Journeyman Dyer, whose principal business is to conduct the woad.
1613. J. May, Decl. Estate Cloth, 30. Some colours haue a slight ground of woad, but farre too weake for the depth of that colour it beares, yet can set vp the *woade marke, or *woade rose, which is vpon the piece at a farre richer depth than the peice is woaded throughout.
1545. Rates of Custome Ho., c viij b. *Wodnuttes the C. li vi. s. viii. d. Ibid., d ij. Wodenuttes. Ibid. (1583), F vij. Woodnets the c.
1642. Rates of Merchandizes, 79. Woadnets the hundred containing five score, 00 10 00.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xliv. But how could those *woad-painted fighters withstand the skill … of our legionaries?
1799. A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 155. The colour resulting from the *woad plant. Ibid., 197. The *woad-planter gives 4 or £5. per acre per annum.
1800. J. Haigh, Dyer’s Assist., 36. A *woad vat may be set without the addition of indigo, but then she yields but little colour, and only dyes a small quantity of wool or stuffs.
1865–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., III. 252. Woad-vat (Pastel vat).
