Bot. Forms: (see SOUTHERN a. and WOOD sb.); also 3 southren-, 5 sothren-, sutherne-, 5–6 sothern-, 7 soothern-, south-hern-. β. 2 suþer-, 5 soþer-, sother-. [OE. súðerne SOUTHERN a. 5 b, and wudu WOOD sb.]

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  1.  A hardy deciduous shrub or plant, Artemisia Abrotanum, having a fragrant aromatic smell and a sour taste, orig. native to the south of Europe, and formerly much cultivated for medicinal purposes. Also, the genus of Compositæ of which this is the type.

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  α.  c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 250. Ðeos wyrt þe man abrotanum, & oðrum naman suðerne wuda nemneþ, ys tweʓea cynna.

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a. 1387.  Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.), 12. Averoyn, southrenwode.

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a. 1400.  Stockh. Med. MS. i. 12, in Anglia, XVIII. 295. Aueroyne he take … Queche is callyd soþernwode also.

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14[?].  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 571. Caruca, suthernewode.

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c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 467/1. Sowtherne woode, herbe,… abrotonum.

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1548.  Turner, Names Herbes, 7. Sothernwod is hote and dry in the thirde degree.

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c. 1550.  H. Lloyd, Treas. Health, X iij. Sothernewood & freshe grece … do drawe oute spriges, thornes, and other thinges.

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1614.  Gorges, Lucan, IX. 406. That which Southernwood we call, Whose smoake the serpents so distast.

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1671.  J. Webster, Metallogr., xv. 211. Resembling the shrub Southernwood, thick set with little twigs leaning one to another.

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1718.  Quincy, Compl. Disp., 121. Southern-wood … is now almost out of use in Medicine.

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1785.  Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxvi. (1794), 386. Southernwood is shrubby, erect, and has setaceous leaves very much branched.

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1833.  Tennyson, Mariana in South, Poems 20. Not a breath … moved the dusty southernwood.

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1867.  H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vii. (1870), 144. Some leaves consist of little more than veins, as in … fennel and southernwood.

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  β.  c. 1150.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 544. Abrotanum, suþerwude.

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a. 1400.  Sqr. lowe Degre, 33. The sother-wood, and sykamoure.

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1460.  Promp. Parv. (Winch. MS.), 426. Sotherwode, herbe, abrotanum.

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  b.  With distinguishing epithets, denoting various species of Artemisia, or plants resembling these (see quots.).

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1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 66 b. Some call it Santonia, and female Southernewood.

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1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, 1. There be two sortes of Sothrenwood (as Dioscorides sayth) the one called female Sothrenwood, or the great Sothrenwood, the other is the male kinde.

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c. 1710.  Petiver, Cat. Ray’s Eng. Herbal, Tab. xx. Wild Southernwood.

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1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Abrotanum, The lesser and Narrower-leav’d Southernwood.

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1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Santolina, female southernwood. Ibid., s.v. Santolina, The male southernwood.

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1771.  Encycl. Brit., I. 428/1. There are 23 species of artemisia, only 4 of which are natives of Britain, viz. the campestris, or field-southernwood [etc.].

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1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 709. Artemisia maritima, Sea Southernwood. Sea Wormwood.

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1853.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., 89/1. Artemisia Santonica,… the Tartarian southern-wood, or wormwood, or the worm-seed plant.

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1857.  Henfrey, Bot., 320. Artemisia Abrotanum is Garden Southern-wood.

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  2.  attrib. and Comb., as southernwood-leaved, twig.

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1822.  Hortus Anglicus, II. 389. S. Abrotanifolius. Southernwood-leaved Groundsel.

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1849.  Diss. Silk Manuf. (Shanghae), 10. The southern-wood twigs are of a cooling nature.

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1887.  D. C. Murray & Herman, One Traveller Returns, vii. 98. In each bowl a bound bunch of southernwood twigs.

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  So † Southernwort. Obs.

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1510.  Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), D ij b. Abrotinum, sotherne worte.

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1530.  Palsgr., 273/2. Southerneworthe.

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1610.  Markham, Masterp., II. clxxiii. 482. Abrotanum, which we cal in English southernwort.

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