Forms: 5 tormentille, -ylle, 6 -yll, 6–8 -ill, -ile, (8 tormentle), 6– tormentil; 5 turmentylle, 5–6 -ill, 6 -yll. [= F. tormentille (1314 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. med.L. tormentilla, in form dim. of tormentum: see TORMENT sb. Reason of name obscure: cf. quot. 1616; according to others from its being used to relieve the gripes, L. tormina.] A low-growing herb, Potentilla Tormentilla (Tormentilla repens), N.O. Rosaceæ, of trailing habit, common on heaths and dry pastures, bearing small four-petalled yellow flowers, and having strongly astringent roots; in use from early times in medicine, and in tanning. Also called septfoil.
[a. 1387. Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.), 42/1. Tormentilla pilos, pentafilon non habet ullos.]
a. 1400–50. Stockh. Med. MS., 6. Water of turmentill.
1530. Palsgr., 284/1. Turmentyll an herbe, tourmentine.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lvii. 83. Tormentill is much like vnto Sinckefoyle.
1610. Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph., II. i. This Tormentil, whose vertue is to part All deadly killing poyson from the heart.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 204. Called Tormentill, because the powder or decoction of the root doth appease the rage and torment of the teeth.
1698. M. Martin, Voy. St. Kilda (1749), 56. Their Leather is tanned with the roots of Tormentil.
1906. Daily Chron., 4 May, 6/7. Tormentil and potentil, names fulfilled of pleasure, Set the world in tune again with the May Day measure.
b. attrib., as tormentil-root.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 43. The best Tormentil Roots come from grassy, wet Places about the Alps and Pyrenees.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 400. Tormentil root is a powerful astringent.
So † Tormentine [from F.] in same sense.
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 713/6. Hec tormentilla, tormentyne [cf. 1530 Palsgr. above].
