Herb. Forms: 1 consolde, 3–5 consoude, -sowde, 5 -saude, 6– consound. [a. OF. consolde, consoulde, consoude (this also mod.F.):—L. consolida, so called app. f. L. consolidāre to make solid or firm, on account of its attributed virtues: cf. COMFREY. Consound is a 16th-c. corruption parallel to that in the verb (see next).]
A herb to which healing virtues were attributed; the plant so called by the Romans is generally supposed to have been the comfrey (Symphytum officinale). But the mediæval herbalists distinguished three species, C. major, media, and minor, which they identified as the Comfrey, Bugle (Ajuga reptans) and Daisy (Bellis perennis), respectively. The field Larkspur was also called Consolida regia or regalis, King’s Consound, whence Linnæus’s specific name Delphinium Consolida.
The name Solidago was a mediæval synonym of Consolida, whence ‘Consound’ has also sometimes been erroneously used as a book-name of species of the composite genus to which Solidago is now applied, or of Senecio confounded with it.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 350. Do him þis to læcedome … consolde, orgeot mid ealaþ, do haliʓ wæter.
[c. 1265. Voc. Names Pl., in Wr-Wülcker, 555/3. Chaudes Herbes … Consolida, i. consoude, i. daiseie.]
c. 1350. Med. MS., in Archæol., XXX. 357. And smal consowde wt yt whyte flour.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 645/34. Nomina herbarum … Hec concilida, consaude. Ibid. (c. 1450), 575/7. Consolida, consowde.
[c. 1450. Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 45. Consolida minor … gall. le petite consonde, angl. waysegle uel bonwort uel brosewort.]
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xc. 133. Consolida media: in English Middell Consounde, or Middle Comfery, and Bugle. Ibid., I. xcix. 141. Solidago Sarracenica, and Consolida Sarracenica … in English Sarrasines Consounde, or Sarrasines Comfery. Ibid., II. xv. 165. The wilde [Larkes spurre] … is now called in Latine Consolida regia aut regalis: in English Kings Consounde.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 275. The Greekes imposed vpon it the name Symphytum, i. Consound.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), v. Consolida … The herb comfrey, or consound.
1807. Compl. Farmer (ed. 5), Consound, a provincial term applied to bugle.
