Also sowbread. [f. SOW sb.1 + BREAD sb., after med.L. panis porcinus, or G. saubrot, † säubrot, † sewbrot (Gesner, 1542), older Flem. seugenbrood (Kilian).] A plant of the genus Cyclamen, esp. C. europæum, the fleshy tuberous root-stocks of which are eaten by swine.
c. 1550. H. Lloyd, Treas. Health, B vj b. Let the rote of Rape Vyolet or Sowbread be sodden.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 330. Sowbread in moyst and stony shadowy places, underneath trees.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxcvi. 694. The common kinde of Sowbread … hath many greene and round leaues.
1651. French, Distill., ii. 47. Adde … Sowbread, Wormwood.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 27. The seeds of divers sowbreads.
a. 1687. Mrs. Behn, trans. Cowley’s Plants, C.’s Wks. 1711, III. 377. The Sow-Bread does afford rich Food for Swine, Physick for Man, and Garlands for the Shrine.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Cyclamen, It is call’d Sowbread, because the Root is round like a Loaf, and the Sows eat it.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 226. The root of the Cyclamen is famous for its acridity, yet this is the principal food of the wild boars of Sicily, whence its common name of Sowbread.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 605. The Cyclamens are commonly known under the name of Sow-breads.
attrib. 1639. O. Wood, Alph. Bk. Secrets, 227. Sowbread root … with honied water, purgeth grosse phlegme and filthy humours.
b. With defining terms, as common, ivy-leaved, round, round-leaved sow-bread.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 330. Cyclaminon which we may cal round Sowbread.
1629. Parkinson, Parad., xxiv. 198. The Common Sowebread is called by most writers in Latine, Panis Porcinus, and by that name it is known in the Apothecaries shops.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 51. The Root spreads … after the Nature of round Sowbread.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Cyclamen, Round-leav’d Sowbread, with Leaves of a purplish Colour underneath.
1858. A. Irvine, Handbk. Brit. Plants, 408. Cyclamen hederæfolium,… Ivy-leaved Sow-bread.
