α.
OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius (Vitell.) (1984) cxxxv. 174 Ðeos wyrt þe man abrotanum & oðrum naman suðernewuda nemneþ ys twegea cynna.
?a1300 in S. G. Hamilton (1906) 184 Abrotonum, souþernewode.
a1400 J. Mirfield (1882) 12 Averoyn, southrenwode.
(Harl. 221) 467/1 Sowtherne woode, herbe,..Abrotonum.
?c1450 in (1896) 18 295 Aueroyne he take..Queche is callyd soþernwode also.
1548 W. Turner sig. A.iiij Sothernwod is hote and dry in the thirde degree.
?1550 H. Llwyd tr. Pope John XXI sig. X.iiiv Sothernewood & freshe grece..do drawe oute spriges, thornes, and other thinges.
1614 A. Gorges tr. Lucan ix. 406 That which Southernwood we call, Whose smoake the serpents so distast.
1671 J. Webster xv. 211 Resembling the shrub Southernwood, thick set with little twigs leaning one to another.
1718 J. Quincy 121 Southern-wood..is now almost out of use in Medicine.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau xxvi. 389 Southernwood is shrubby, erect, and has setaceous leaves, very much branched.
1832 Ld. Tennyson Mariana in South in (new ed.) 20 Not a breath..moved the dusty southernwood.
1857 A. Henfrey 320 Artemisia Abrotanum is Garden Southern-wood.
1883 20 Oct. 705/1 The common southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum) is reported..to yield a crystallisable alkaloid which he has named ‘abrotine’.
1903 10 Oct. 248/2 Even in the last century a spray of Southernwood with Rue was always placed by the prisoner in the dock as a preventive against jail fever.
1973 F. A. Boddy iv. 62 Old world charm and sentimentality can be further satisfied with the grey, feathery, aromatic leaves of Artemisia abrotanum, commonly called southernwood.
2006 I. Pauwels & G. Christoffels 105/1 Southernwood is not fussy about soil as long as it is dry.