Also 6 brionye, bryonye, (brione), 6–7 brionie, 7–9 briony. [ad. L. bryonia (Pliny), a. Gr. βρυωνία (Diosc.). Cf. also Fr. bryone, whence Eng. brione in 16th c.]
1. prop. The English name of the plant-genus Bryonia (N.O. Cucurbitaceæ); and spec. the common wild species (B. dioica), sometimes called (in distinction from sense 2) Red, or White Bryony.
c. 1000. Saxon Leechd., I. 172. Genim þas wyrte ðe man bryonia … nemneð.
1552. Huloet, Bryonye or wylde vine.
1598. Yong, Diana, 302. Bryony, or the white vine, which runs winding about the bodies of trees like a snake.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, 45. Against Deafenesse … drop into your eares the iuice of … Brionie, mixed with Honey or Oyle.
1815. Shelley, Rev. Islam, III. 7. Drooping briony, pearled With dew … Hung, where we sate.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., vi. 10. The white bryony overrunning the thicket.
1863. Longf., Wayside Inn, Sicilian’s T., 26. One … mended the rope with braids of briony.
2. Black Bryony: a name given, from similarity of habit to the prec., to an endogenous climbing plant, Lady’s Seal, Tamus communis (N.O. Dioscoreaceæ), wild in the south of England.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 492. The Shrub called Our Ladies Seal, (which is a kind of Briony).
1805. Med. & Phys. Jrnl., XIV. 68. T. communis, Bryony Lady-seal. Black briony.
1872. Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 271. This species … although commonly called Black Bryony, has nothing to do with the genus Bryonia.
1883. Gd. Words, Nov., 710/2. The … red-berried bryony, and the so-called black-bryony.
3. Bastard Bryony: Cissus sicyoides.
4. Attrib. and Comb. Bryony-vine = sense 1.
1684. Boyle, Porousn. Anim. Bod., iii. 18. Helmont talks much of the great vertue of white Briony root.
1842. Tennyson, Amphion, 29. Briony-vine and ivy-wreath Ran forward to his rhyming.
1875. Fortnum, Maiolica, ix. 84. Small vine or briony leaves and interlaced tendrils.
