Forms: 1 féferfuȝe, -fuȝie, 5 fevyrfue, 6 -fewe, fewerfew, 7 feverfue, feaverfew, Sc. feverfoylie, 5– feverfew. See also FEATHERFEW, FETTERFOE. [OE. féferfuȝe, -fuȝie, ad. late L. febrifuga, L. febrifugia, f. L. febri- (febris) fever + fug-āre to drive away.
The mod. form cannot directly descend from the OE.; its source is the AF. *fevrefue (fewerfue c. 1265 in Wr.-Wülck., 556), which normally represents the Lat. Under FEATHERFEW (a corruption suggested by the ‘feather-like’ appearance of the leaves) will be found forms in -foy (:—OE. -fuȝie), which in some dialects has been corrupted into -foil. The name feather-foil has by botanical writers been applied to another ‘feather-leaved’ plant: see FEATHER sb. 19.]
a. The plant Pyrethrum Parthenium. b. dial. The Erythræa Centaurium.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 134. Febrefugia … feferfuge.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 134. Curmelle feferfuȝe.
c. 1415. Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 645. Hec febrifuga, fevyrfew.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 79 b. The new writers hold … that feuerfew is better for weomen.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 234. Feuerfue comforteth the stomacke, and is good for the feuer quotidian.
1673. Wedderburn, Voc., 18 (Jam.). Matricaria, feverfoylie.
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. iv. 258. Feverfew, Catmint, Pennyroyal, each 3 Handfuls.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 314. Common Fever-few.
