Forms: 1 wyrt, 2 wirte, 6 pl. wirtes; 2 wert, 4 pl. wertes; 1, 3, 5–7 wurt (5 pl. wurten), 3 wrt, 3–7 worte (5 wourte), 4– wort (5 pl. worttus, 6 woort). [OE. wyrt root, plant = OS. wurt, OHG. (MHG. and G.) wurz, ON. (Icel., Norw., Sw., Da.) urt, Goth. waurts; the stem is related to those of ON. rót ROOT sb., and of L. rādix, Gr. ῥίζα.
For the history of the spelling and pronunciation, see the note to WORM sb.]
1. A plant, herb, or vegetable, used for food or medicine; often = pot-herb.
Not in ordinary use after the middle of the 17th cent. and now arch. As a second element, however, retained in various plant-names, as colewort, liverwort.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, lxxxix. 6. On marne swe swe wyrt leoreð.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxiii. 173. Maneʓra cynna wyrta & grasu.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xi. 42. Ʒiæ teiʓðas meric & cunela & ælc wyrt.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 70. Ðeos wyrt þe man betonicam nemneð.
c. 1205. Lay., 31884. Þat folc flah in to wudes … heo luueden bi wurten.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 119. Ilk gres, ilc wurt,… His owen sed beren bad he.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6999. It wolde finde hom lec & worten inowe bi þe ȝere.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 42. Schadowed þis wortez ful schyre & schene, Gilofre, gyngure, & gromylyoun, & pyonys.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 170. Whan she homward cam she wolde brynge Wortes or othere herbes tymes ofte.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 46. Hakke smalle þy wortis and persyl.
c. 1475. Macro Plays, Mankind, 265. I was neuer worth a pottfull a wortis, sythyn I was borne.
1531. Elyot, Governor, III. xxii. (1883), II. 343. Wortes that the feldes do brynge furthe, for their potage.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, V. lxxv. 642. Cyues … is set in gardens amongst potte herbes, or wurtes.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., vii. 238. Wirta or Wurta. Woortes, for which wee now vse the French name of herbes.
1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm. Yr., Winter, xvi. II. 204. It is an excellent pleasure to be able to take pleasure in worts and water, in bread and onions.
1755. Johnson, Wort. 1. Originally a general name for an herb; whence it still continues in many, as liverwort, spleenwort.
1864. Cockayne, Leechd. (Rolls), I. Pref. p. liii. We find the healing power of worts spoken of as a thing of course.
1888. A. S. Wilson, Lyric Hopeless Love, cxv. 330. And worts and pansies there which grew Have secrets others wish they knew.
† 2. A general name for any plant of the cabbage kind, genus Brassica; colewort. Obs.
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 190. Woman mylk and wortis soupith.
c. 1440. Palladius on Husb., I. 154. Saue wortis [exceptis caulibus] sowe in hem what euere hit be.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 69. Hare in Wortes—Take Colys, and stripe hem faire from the stalkes.
a. 1500. Mourn. Hare, in E. E. Misc. (Warton Club) 44. Yf I to the toune come or torne, Be hit in worttus or in leyke.
1538. Turner, Libellus, Brassica … anglice uocatur wortes aut Cole aut Cole Wortes.
[1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 123. Fal. Good worts? good Cabidge.]
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. iv. II. 11. Here is the stem of a woort so well growne, here is a cabbage so thriven and fed, that a poore mans boord will not hold it.
1617. Fletcher, Valentinian, III. ii. I am poor,… yet digging, pruning,… Planting of Worts and Onions, any thing That’s honest, I’ll rather chuse.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., To M. Jo. Wicks, 12. A Dish Of thrice boyl’d-worts.
1755. Johnson, Wort 2. A plant of the cabbage kind.
† 3. pl. = POTTAGE 1. Obs.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), Prol. 231. He shall lat ordeynn wele his soper with wortis of the necke of the hert and of oþer good metes.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 114. Wortes made of olde chese, cicer, cristall beaten to powder and taken with hony.
1547. Baldwin, Mor. Philos., 7. If thou, Diogenes, couldest flatter Dionise, thou shouldst not need to make woorts.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1562), 51/2. Pulmentum, a meate made lyke grewell or wortes.
† b. With qualifying word: esp. long worts.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 5. Lange Wortys de chare.—Take beeff and merybonys, and boyle yt in fayre water; þan take fayre wortys and … parboyle hem in clene water [etc.]. Ibid. Lange Wortes de pesoun.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 518. Frumenty with venesoun, pesyn with bakon, longe wortes not spare.
c. 1500. Wyl Bucke’s Test. (Copland), B 1 b. For to make small wortes…. then take herbes of the beste that thou can gete for wortes, and hewe them small.
4. Comb., as † wort blade, † -leaf, † -plant, † porridge; † wort-cropper, a name for the hare; wortcunning (pseudo-arch.), the knowledge of herbs and plants; † wort-stock, a cabbage-stalk; † wort-yard, a herb-garden. Also WORT-WORM.
14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc. (MS. Harl. 2257), Caulis,… a *worte blade.
13[?]. Names of Hare (MS. Digby 86, lf. 168 b). Þe cawelhert, þe *wort-croppere.
1864. Cockayne (title), Leechdoms, *Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health, 13. Rosted in a Docke or *Worte leafe.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 786/37. Hoc elusculum, a *wurtplant.
1556. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 240. Item, *worte porrege,… iijd.
14[?]. in Wr.-Wülcker, 594/31. Mandarus,… a *wortstoke.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XX. ix. II. 50. Wort-stocks beeing dried and burnt into ashes.
c. 1000. Cambr. Ps. cxliii. 13. Prumptuaria, hordyrn vel *wyrtʓeardas.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 331. He … suffrede not, for defaute of preching, Goddis vyneȝerde passe to a wortȝerd. Ibid. (1382), 1 Kings xxi. 2. Ȝif to me thi vyn ȝerd, that I make to me a wort ȝerd.
