[WORM sb. 4.]
1. A name for various plants considered to have anthelmintic properties; as swine’s fennel or sulphurwort, Peucedanum officinale; Artemisia Santonica, A. Vahliana, A. judaica, A. maritima; Erysimum cheiranthoides (Treacle or English Wormseed); Chenopodium anthelminticum and Ambrina anthelmintica (American Wormseed); Halogeton tamariscifolium (Spanish Wormseed).
a. 1400–50. Stockh. Med. MS., 188. Swynys fenkel or wyrmsed: feniculus porosus.
c. 1400. [see swynesfenel, SWINE 5 b].
1541. Bk. Properties Herbs, D j. Feniculus poeticus … is called worme sede. It is good to destroy wormes in a mannes body.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. xxii. 212. Cameline, or English Woormseed. Ibid., 213. Treacle Wormeseede riseth vp with tough and pliant braunches. Ibid., II. ccccxxxv. 942. The Latines name it Sementina: the seede is called Semen sanctum, Holie seede, and Semen contra Lumbricos: in English Wormseed; the herbe it selfe is also called Wormseed, or Wormseedwoort.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., VII. xxviii. 867. Camelina … English Wormeseede.
1686. Ray, Hist. Plant., I. 368. Absinthium Santonicum Alexandrinum C. B. … Semen Sanctum Park. Sementina Ger. … Wormseed.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 332. Worm-seed, Chenopodium.
1770. J. R. Forster, trans. Kalm’s Trav. N. Amer., I. 163. Chenopodium anthelminticum is very plentiful on the road…. The English who settled here, call it Worm-seed and Jerusalem Oak…. In Pensylvania and New Jersey its seeds are given to children, against the worms.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants, III. 585. Erysimum cheiranthoides … Treacle Wormseed.
1831. J. Davies, Mat. Med., 418. Wormseed. Jerusalem Oak. Chenopodium anthelminticum,… growing all over America.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v., Spanish Wormseed, Halogeton tamariscifolium.
2. The dried flower-heads of one or other of these plants, used as an anthelmintic. Formerly also in pl. Levant, Alexandrian, Barbary, Tartarian wormseed, that prepared from species of Artemisia.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 234. Worme sede, ij. s. vi. d.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 269. Woorme seede of the best kynde, cauled Semenzina.
1594. R. Wilson, Coblers Proph., ii. 427 (Malone Soc.). Sould. I abhorre and defie thee. Con. Euen as the child doth wormeseed hid in Raisons.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccccxxxv. 941. This Wormwood called Sementina and Semen sanctum … beareth that seede which we haue in vse, called Wormseede: in shoppes Semen santolinum.
1615. in W. Foster, Lett. recd. E. Ind. Co. (1899), III. 177. Wormseeds likewise doth grow in Corosson.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., I. ii. § 25. The Child certainly knows … That the Wormseed or Mustard it refuses, is not the Apple or Sugar it cries for.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 3983/4. The Cargo of the Ship Hamstead Galley,… consisting of … Worm-seeds, Gum Arabeck [etc.].
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Wormseed, Semen contra, semen sanctum, or semen santonicum.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Chenopodium, The fourth and fifth Sorts were brought from America, where the Seeds are call’d Worm-Seed.
1789. Phil. Trans., LXXIX. 82. The Chenopodium, producing the semen santonicum, or worm-seed, a medicine formerly in great character.
1866. Treas. Bot., Wormseed.… The name is applied in herb-shops to Semen contra, the produce of several species of Artemisia.
1867. Watts, Dict. Chem., Wormseed. Semen Cinæ. Semen Contra. Semen Santonici.—The flower-buds of Artemisia Vahliana, A. Sieberi, and A. inculta.
1880. Garrod & Baxter, Mat. Med., 293. Santonica or worm-seed.
3. The eggs of the silkworm moth. Cf. SEED sb. 5 a.
1733. P. Lindsay, Interest Scotl., 133. By supplying the Planters in those Parts with small Quantities of Wormseed, of the best Breed.
4. attrib. in wormseed mustard, oil, † stone, weed, † wort (see quots.).
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 35. Erysimum cheiranthoides. *Worm-seed Mustard.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 167. The essential oil of Chenopodium anthelminticum, known in North America under the name of *Worm-seed Oil, is powerfully anthelmintic.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., Wormseed-oil. Oleum cinæ.
1729. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils, I. 65. A Stone … found in … Cornwall: and is called there, *Wormseed-Stone, being thick set with small Bodies, not unlike the Samen Santonici, or Wormseed.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 170. The *Worm-Seed Weed.
1830. J. D. Maycock, Flora Barbadensis, 446. Worm Seed Weed. Chenopodium anthelminticum.
1597. *wormseedwoort [see 1].
