Obs. Forms: 1 banwyrt, 3 bonwurt, 5 banworte, 6 banwort, banwurt, banwoort, 7–8 bonewort. [OE. bánwyrt, f. bán, BONE + wyrt, WORT.]
A name given, on account of their supposed bone-healing properties, to several different plants, as the common Daisy, Golden-Rod, Centaury (Erythræa), Yellow Mountain Pansy, Consolida minor, and Osmund Royal or Flowering Fern.
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 300. Uiola aurosa et uiola purpurea, banwyrt.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 294. Ðeos wyrt þe man violam, & oðrum naman banwyrt nemneð, ys ðreora cynna.
c. 1265. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 556. Osmunda, osmunde, bonwurt.
c. 1400. Roy. MS. 18 A vi. f. 72 b, in Promp. Parv., 52, note. Bryse-wort or bon-wort or daysye.
1483. Cath. Angl., 20/1. Banworte, consolidum.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 115. In battill gyrs burgionys the banwort wyld.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Bellis, the whyte daysy, called of some the margarite, in the North banwoort.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 2. Take adder’s spear, alehoof … bone-wort.
