Forms: α. 5 totsane, toutsayne, 6 totsan, tutsane, 6– tutsan, 7 tutesain; β. 6 tutson, -sone, -som, -some. [app. of F. or Anglo-F. origin. But the mod.F. toute-saine is not in Cotgr. (who gives tutsan, perh. from Lyte), and is known to Hatz.-Darm. only from 1762, when it appears in the Dict. of the Académie, whereas the name is found in Eng. c. 1400–50.]
A name applied to various plants on account of their alleged healing virtues; formerly to Agnus Castus, and, in French, to Sanicle (Hatz.-Darm.); now, in Eng., to a shrubby species of St. John’s-wort, Hypericum Androsæmum, with strongly aromatic foliage and berry-like fruit; formerly esteemed as a vulnerary. Also called PARK-LEAVES.
α. a. 1400–50. Stockh. Med. MS., 157. Totsane or parkleuys: agnus castus.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 562/24. Agnus castus,… toutsayne.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 13. Androsaemon. Androsaemon is the herbe (as I dooe gesse) whiche we call totsan, and the Poticaries falsly cal Agnus Castus.
1552. Elyot (ed. Cooper), Androsæmon, an hearbe called sainct Johns woort, or rather Tutsane, and groweth in gardeyns, and no where els.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xlv. 66. Tutsan so called in French and in English.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. clii. 435. The leaues laide vpon broken shins,… healeth them, and many other hurtes and griefes, whereof it tooke his name Tout saine, or Tutsane,… healing all things.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xiii. 206. The yarrow,… The healing Tutsan then and Plantan for a sore.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. Table A v. Agnus Castus, of some called Tutesaine, is an hearbe with reddish leaues, and sinewie like Plantaine.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., V. lii. 575. Androsæmum Matthioli. Matthiolus his Tutsan. This Tutsan (for other English name I know not well, what it may have, unlesse you would call it a great S. Iohns wort, because it is so like it).
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Androsæmum, Tutsan or Park-leaves. This Plant grows wild in many Parts of England.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxv. (1794), 374. Garden Tutsan is evidently of this genus (Hypericum).
1859. R. Thompson, Gard. Assist. (1878), 649. Hypericum Androsæmum, tutsan, sweet amber.
β. 1552. Elyot (ed. Cooper), Ascyrum, the herbe, which of some is called Peter worte: other would haue it to be Tutson. Ibid., Cruciata, of some is taken for the herbe called Tutsome.
1575. Turbervile, Venerie, 232. Take a handfull of Tutsome, a handfull of Rewe [etc.].
b. attrib. and Comb.
1804. Charlotte Smith, Conversations, etc., I. 172. The Apocynum, or tutsan leaved dog’s bane.
1872. H. Kingsley, Hornby Mills, I. 6. The golden Tutsan St John’s wort lit up the darkness of the shrubbery.
