Forms: 5 tanesey, 5–8 tansie, 5–9 tansey, 6 -sye, -say, taunsey, 7–8 tanzy, -zey, 5– tansy. [a. OF. tanesie (13th c.), tanoisie, tenasie, mod.F. tanaisie, aphetic form of athanasie ‘the hearbe Tansie’ (Cotgr.), ad. med.L. athanasia tansy, a. Gr. ἀθανασία immortality. Cf. also It. atanási ‘Tansie or siluerwort’ (Florio, 1611), atanásia the herb tansy (Baretti, 1824), Pg. atanasia or athanasia, the herb tansy. Hatz.-Darm. mention also a med.L. tanasia, but without reference. But apart from this it seems clear that OF. tanesie was aphetic for atanesie, the name prob. referring to the long persistence of the flowers: cf. quot. 1597; also EVERLASTING and F. immortelle.
Med. L. had also the name Tanacētum (now the botanical generic name) with the variants tanesetum, tansetum, tanicetum. Tanezatum and athanacetum (c. 1250) are also cited by Burgess. These seemn to show that athanacetum and tanesetum were latinized formations from OF. tanesie, although the force of the suffix is not clear.]
1. An erect herbaceous plant, Tanacetum vulgare, N.O. Compositæ, tribe Corymbiferæ, growing about two feet high, with deeply cut and divided leaves, and terminal corymbs of yellow rayless button-like flowers; all parts of the plant have a strong aromatic scent and bitter taste.
Formerly much used in medicine as a stomachic, and in cookery. Curled tansy, a variety with curled leaves, is used, like parsley, for garnishing dishes.
[c. 1265. Names of Plants, in Wr.-Wülcker, 556/17. Tanesetum, [AFr.] tanesie, [Eng.] helde.]
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 50. Þen grynde tansy þo iuse owle wrynge, To blynde with þo egges with owte lesynge.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Surgery (E.E.T.S.), 74. Porcelane, bursa pastoris, rede rose, tanesey, wormode, horsmynt.
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 712/33. Hoc tansetum, tansaye.
c. 1450. Alphita, 26/1. Atanasia … tanacetum idem. Hanc utuntur Salerniani et Hispanni similiter, tansie.
1538. Turner, Libellus, Athanasia que grece tagetes, latine tanacetum, anglice dicitur Tansey.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 67. I sau tansay, that is gude to purge the neiris.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cxcix. 526. Tansie … in Latine Tanacetum and Athanasia, as though it were immortall; because the floures do not speedily wither.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 124/1. Take the herbe Tansy.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 89/1. Curled Tansy, the leaves are … somewhat crumpled together.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., II. (ed. 2), 101. Tanzy … or any other bitter Herbs.
1770. Phil. Trans., LX. 10. I observed quantities of juniper and tanzey.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxvi. (1794), 385. or the first section, with discoid flowers, you have the Tansy.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 478. Oil of tansey … is extracted from the leaves and flowers of the tanacetum vulgare, or common tansey…. It has the peculiar flavour of tansey.
1885. Ruskin, Præterita, I. iii. 103. I passed my days much as the thistles and tansy did.
2. Applied to other plants, esp. the Silverweed or Goose-grass, Potentilla anserina, often distinguished as Wild tansy and Dog’s or Goose Tansy; also locally to Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium, and Ragwort, Senecio Jacobæa (Britten and Holl.).
[c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 486/2. Tanze, herbe (K., P. tansy), tanasetum domesticum, quia tarazetum silvestre dicitur gosys gresse, vel cameroche.]
c. 1530. Pol., Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 36. Take wylde tansey, and grynde yt, and make yt neshe, & ley it therto, and it wyl bryng it owght.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 181. Infused in water of silverweed, called wilde tansey.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 391. Argentina, Ἀθανασία ὑλόεσσα, wilde-Tansie, stops all Fluxes whatsoever.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 312. Goose-grass or Wild-tansie is a Weed that strong Clays are very subject to.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tansy, Wild, a common name for the Potentilla anserina, or silver-weed.
b. With distinctive additions: Cape Tansy, Athanasia capitata var. glabrata; Maudlin T., Achillea Ageratum; Shrubby T., Tanacetum suffruticosum; White T., (in Lyte) Achillea nobilis of Southern Europe; erroneously applied to other plants.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., ix. Tab. 81. Box-leaved *Cape Tansey…. Leaves pale green, and thick set round the Stalk.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. iv. 84. Ageratum. *Maudlin Tansy.
1855. Dunglison, Dict. Med. (ed. 12), M[audlin] Tansey, Achillea ageratum.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. x. 17. There be two sortes of Tansie. The one great and yellow, the other small and white…. Tanacetum minus, *White Tansie… The second groweth in some places of Italie; in this countrey ye shall not finde it but in the gardens of certayne Herboristes.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 72/1. The White Tansie, or Agrimony … is a short shrub of no height.
3. A pudding, omelet, or the like, flavored with juice of tansy: see also 5. arch. or dial.
Said to have been eaten at Easter in memory of the ‘bitter herbs’ of the Passover.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 86. Tansey. Take faire Tansey, and grinde it in a morter; And take eyren, yolkes and white, And drawe hem thorgh a streynour, and streyne also þe Iuse of þe Tansey…; and medle the egges and the Iuse togidre [etc.].
1513. Bk. Keruynge, A vj b. A tansye fryed, & other bake metes.
c. 1530. Caroll, in Anglia, XII. 588. At Easter commeth alleluya With butter cheese and a tansay.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 18. Let him take Neppe that cattes delite in … and make a taunsey thereof.
a. 1601. ? Marston, Pasquil & Kath., I. 154. There’s but two Lambs,… three tartes, and foure tansies, for supper.
1621. Fletcher, Pilgrim, III. vi. They [eggs] shall be all addle, And make an admirable tanzey for the devil.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 69. A dainty tansy of gooseberries.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physic., 17. A Tansie or Caudle made with eggs and the juyce thereof while it is young, putting to it some Sugar and Rosewater.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 20 April. And there spent an houre or two with pleasure with her, and eat a tansy.
1748. Mrs. Sarah Harrison, Housekpr.’s Pocket-Bk., iii. (ed. 4), 11. Trotters, To be served up as a Tanzey.
1754–6. Connoisseur, No. 48 (1767), II. 95. Mince-pie … is as essential to Christmas, as … tansy to Easter.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 60. If you can catch enough of them they make an excellent tansy, their heads and tails being cut off; and fried in eggs.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. iv. A Florentine tourte, or tansy.
b. A merrymaking or festive gathering; a village feast held on Shrove Tuesday. dial. See Eng. Dial. Dict.
† 4. Phrase. Like a tansy: properly, fittingly, perfectly; perfect. Obs. [Origin unascertained.]
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No K., V. i. To have a Leg broken, or a Shoulder out, with being turn’d o’ th’ Stones like a Tansie.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxii. That’s well said,… now this is something like a Tanzy [orig. C’est bien dit et advisé].
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., i. 89. Miss. Look, Lady Answerall, is it not well mended? Lady Ans. Ay, this is something like a tanzy.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. vi. I would work … like a horse, and make fortifications for you something like a tansy.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tansy flower, leaf, tea; tansy-leaved adj.; tansy-cake, tansy-pudding, culinary preparations appropriate to Easter; tansy-faced a., having a yellow complexion; tansy mustard: see quot.; tansy oil, the essential oil of tansy.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 50. For a *tansy cake. Breke egges in bassyn … þen grynde tansy [etc.].
1725. Bourne, Antiq. Vulg., xxiv. 193. Recreations and Diversions on Easter Holy Days,… playing at Hand-Ball for a Tanzy-Cake.
1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq., 253. The winning a Tanzy Cake at the Game of Hand-Ball, depends chiefly upon Swiftness of Foot.
1894. O. Heslop, Northumb. Gloss., Tansy-cake, a girdle-cake flavoured with tansy.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, V. iii. A sun-burnt, *tansy-fac’d belov’d.
1905. Daily Chron., 18 Oct., 4/5. A pond, lying deep among *tansy flowers.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 181. S[isymbrium] Tanacetifolium, *Tansey-leaved Wild Rocket.
1882. Garden, 12 Aug., 145/3. The Tansy-leaved Thorn.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 36. S[isymbrium] canescens,… *Tansy Mustard.
1894. Muir & Morley, Watts’ Dict. Chem., IV. 638/1. *Tansy Oil, the essential oil obtained by distillation of the tansy contains 1 p.c. of a terpene C10H16, 26 p.c. of an alcohol C10H18O, and 70 p.c. of tanacetyl hydride C10H16O.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 177. A *Tansey Pudding of ground Rice.
1771. H. Walpole, Lett., 5 Aug. There are three or four very high hills,… exactly in the shape of a tansy pudding.
1908. Daily Chron., 18 April, 7/5. Chester still clings to its Tansy pudding, symbolical of the bitter herb commanded at the paschal feast.
