[f. WART sb. + WORT1.] A name for Euphorbia Helioscopia, E. Peplus, and E. Peplis (Sea Wartwort). Also applied to other plants, as Chelidonium majus and Senebiera Coronopus. (Cf. wart-weed, WART sb. 6.)
a. 1400. MS. Arund. 42, f. 67. Þe same erbe [‘Eliotropia’] is called verrucaria, wrotwort, by cause þat it destruyth & fordoth wrottys.
c. 1450. Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 9. Anabulla,… wartwort. Ibid., 185. Titimallis,… wertewert.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 60. Peplis … is very like vnto wartwort but that it is shorter, thicker and spred vpon the grounde. It may be called in english sea wartwurt. Ibid. (1562), Herbal, II. 154 b. This kinde is called … Wartwurt; it maye also be called son spourge.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. xxxii. 363. Peplos … is called … Wartwurt,… also Pety Spurge.
1665. Lovell, Herball (ed. 2), 464. Sea wart-wort, see Sea spurge.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., Petyt-Spurg, otherwise called Wartwort.
1802. G. V. Sampson, Statist. Surv. Londonderry, App. 21. Sun-spurge, or wartwort; the juice is white, caustic, and is applied successfully to take off warts.
1842. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 172/2. The spurge or wartwort … yields a milky juice applicable for the purpose [of tempera-painting].
