warence

English

Etymology

Old French warance, French garance.

Noun

warence (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Dyer's madder, an herb (Rubia tinctorum) or a reddish dye made from the herb.
   • [a. 1500, Goesta Brödin, editor, Agnus Castus, A Middle English Herbal, published 1950, page 201:

     Rvbea maior is an herbe þat me clepuþ reed mader or warance

     Rubea major is an herb that is called red madder or warence]

   • 1529, The Grete Herball, Peter Treueris, page 252:

     Rubea the moze hath greter leves tis of grete verttue, and is the herbe that warence or madder is made of, therefore it is called the dyers rubea.

   • 1852, “Original Documents. Ancient Consuetudinary of the City of Winchester”, in The Archaeological Journal, page 86:

     The tariff of gate tolls specifies three sorts of articles for dyeing,—madder (warence); orchil or lichen, under the name of korc, […] woad (weide), together with the potash (cendre), used in scouring and dyeing.

   • 1857, John Harland, editor, The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall, in the County of Lancaster, at Smithils and Gawthorpe: From September 1582 to October 1621, page 694:

     in Gerarde’s time, there were for many of them still older English names, a list of which he “gathered out of ancient written and printed copies, and from the mouths of plain and simple country people.” Thus ache is smallage; […] tooth-wort, shepherd’s purse; warence, madder; warmot, wormwood

References

• “warence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.