? Obs. Also 6 wodwesse, -wosse, 9 dial. woodwish, etc. [OE. wuduweaxe, f. wudu WOOD sb.1 + *weaxe, presumably f. Teut. waχs- to grow, WAX v.1] = WOODWAXEN.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 66. Wudu weaxe & heʓerife ʓenuwa þa togædere.
1570. Levins, Manip., 85/35. Wodwesse, glastum. Ibid., 175/37. Wodwosse, glastum.
a. 1667. Sir W. Petty, in Sprat, Hist. Royal Soc., 296. The Yellows are Weld, Wood-wax, and old Fustick.
a. 1691. Aubrey, Nat. Hist. Wilts (1847), 49. In Bradon Forest growes very plentifully rank wood-wax.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 241. Green-weed or Wood-wax.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 486. Wudwise, a yellow flower, which grows on bad land, and has a bitter taste.
1845. J. Arkell, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. II. 435. On a great deal of this pasture-land the wood-wax and gorse are very abundant, as well as many other nasty weeds which I do not know the names of.
Hence Woodwaxer, one who gathers woodwax.
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist, 76–7. Our poorer people … used to collect it by cart loads…; and the season of ‘woodwaxen’ was a little harvest to them…. The old woodwaxers tell me, that [etc.].
