Note E267 — 45.

Mogwort. "Mugwort, a name that corresponds in meaning with its synonym wyrmwyrt, wormwood, from O.E. mough, moghe, or moughte, a maggot or moth.

'And wormes and moghes on þe same manere Sal þat day be in wittenes broght;' —Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, l. 5572;

and Wycliffe (Matt. vi. 20):

'Where neþer ruste ne moughte destruyeþ.'

The name was given to this plant from its having been recommended by Dioscorides to ward off the attacks of these insects. 'Mogwort, al on as seyn some, modirwort: lewed folk þat in manye wordes conne no rygt sownynge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys, þey corruptyn þe o into u, and d into g, and syncopyn i, smytyn awey i and r, and seyn mugwort.'—MS. Arundel, 42, f. 35. It is unnecessary to have recourse to this singular process. The plant was known both as a moth-wort and as a mother-wort, but while it was used almost exclusively as a mother-wort, it still retained, at the same time, the name of mugwort, a synonym of moth-wort. In Ælfric's glossary it is called matrum herba—Dr. R. A. Prior. See Brand's Pop. Antiq. for an account of the superstitious custom of seeking under the root of this plant on Midsummer-eve for a coal, to serve as a talisman against many disasters.