Forms: α. 1 weʓbrádae, -brǽde, (2 weibreode, 3 wei-, 5 weybrode), 4–6 weybrede (6 -bred), 5–6 waybrede, 6–7 waybreed, 6, 9 waybread, (7 whaybred, 8 way-broad), 5– waybred (6 wabred, 6, 9 wabret, 9 waybret, wabert). β. 7 wayburne, 9 -burn; 7 waburne, 9 wabran, -bron, waveren. [Com. WGer.: OE. weʓbráde, weʓbrǽde wk. fem., corresponds to OS. wegabreda, wegbrede (MLG., M.Du. wegebrede, Du. weegbree; WFris. weibré), OHG. wegabreita fem. (MHG. wegebreite, mod.G. wegebreite, wegbreite fem., weg(e)breit masc.); Da. has vejbred from LG. The word means ‘broad-leaved plant growing beside the ways’; f. WAY sb.1 (the early continental forms have genit. pl.) + OTeut. type *braiðjōn- broad object (cf. OHG. wintbreita ‘ventilabrum,’ breite flat cake). In the β-forms, occurring only with -leaf, the d of the stem has disappeared before the -n of the OE. genitive sing. in weʓbrǽdan léaf (Leechd., I. 84, 86).] = PLANTAIN1 1. Also water waybread = water plantain: see PLANTAIN1 2.
c. 700. Epinal Gloss., 65. Arniglosa,… uueʓbradae.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 292. Ʒenim … þa ruwan weʓbrædan [etc.].
11[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 544/38. Plantago, weibreode.
c. 1265. Voc. Plants, ibid. 558/22. Weibrode.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxix. (1495), 637. Weybrede chewed easyth and clensyth swellynge gomes.
c. 1450. Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 14. Arnoglossa,… plantago maior idem…. Anglice weybrode.
c. 1500. Gloss., 69, in Makculloch MS. (S.T.S.), 28. Hec plantago, a wabred.
1538. Turner, Libellus, Alisma dioscoridæ,… water plantane or water waybrede. Ibid. (1562), Herbal, II. 94. There ar two kyndes of plantayn or Waybrede, the lesse and the greater.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXV. viii. II. 223. Themison … set forth a whole booke of the hearbe Waibread or Plantain, wherein he highly praiseth it.
1657. W. Coles, Adam in Eden, lxxvi. The generall English name is Plantaine; but that which the Greeks call Eptaneuron, we call Way-bred, because it commonly breeds by the wayside.
1705. trans. Cowley’s Plants, Wks. (1711), III. 303. Next Waybred rose … Her Nature is astringent, which great Hate Of her among Blood-letters does create.
1861. Mrs. Lankester, Wild Flowers, 109. The common name of Plantago Major is undoubtedly Way-bred (not Way-bread, as it is usually spelt), from its frequency by the way-side, seeming as if bred on the road.
1866. Treas. Bot., Waybread.
b. Comb.: waybread-leaf (also Sc. wayburn-leaf), sometimes used as the name of the plant.
α. 1599. T. Cutwode, Caltha Poet. (Roxb.), cxvii. And with a Wabret leafe he made a wallet.
1614. G. Markham, Cheap & Gd. Husb., Table hard words, Plantayne … is called Whaybred leafe.
1803. Leyden, Scenes of Infancy, I. 101. The wabret leaf, that by the pathway grew.
β. 1609. in T. Craig-Brown, Hist. Selkirksh. (1886), I. 180. Being demandit if she gave drinks, she answered she gave nane bot off Waburne leavis for the hart-axes.
1623. Sel. Rec. Presbyt. Lanark (Abbotsford Club), 1. She appoyntit thame the wayburne leaf to be eattin nyne morningis.
1808. Jamieson, Wabran leaves, Great Plantain or Waybread.
1820. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 202. I thought the grey whin was gaun frae below me—it shook like a wabron-leaf.
1831. W. Patrick, Plants Lanark., 94. Greater Plantain…. The leaves (vulgarly called the Wayburn-leaf) are spread on the ground.
1914. J. S. Angus, Shetland Gloss., 154. Waveren leaf, plantain (Plantago major).
