meadwort

English

Alternative forms

• medæwart [16th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English medewort, from Old English medewyrt, medowyrt, corresponding to mead +‎ wort. Cognate with Norwegian mjødurt, Danish mjødurt.

Noun

meadwort (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Meadowsweet, a plant found near rivers or on damp ground.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The metall first he mixt with Medæwart, / That no enchauntment from his dint might saue; / That it in flames of Aetna wrought apart, / And seuen times dipped in the bitter waue / Of hellish Styx, which hidden vertue to it gaue.

Anagrams

• damewort, metaword, to meward, two-armed, wardmote