vulnerary

English

WOTD – 6 March 2009

From Latin vulnerārius, from vulnus (“wound”).

vulnerary (comparative more vulnerary, superlative most vulnerary)

Useful or used for healing wounds; healing, curative.
- 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 28,
  Rebecca examined the wound, and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed, informed her father that [...] there was nothing to fear for his guest’s life.
- 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 422 (footnote):
  Take, for example, the famous vulnerary ointment attributed to Paracelsus.
(archaic, rare) Causing wounds, wounding.

Restricted in modern use primarily to works on ethnobotany and traditional medicine.

useful or used for healing wounds

causing wounds, wounding

vulnerary (plural vulneraries)

A healing drug or other agent used in healing and treating wounds.
- 1757, John Rutty, A Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters, Comprehending the Most Celebrated Medicinal Waters, both Cold and Hot, of Great-Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy, and several other Parts of the World, London: Printed for William Johnston, at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 745173148, page 494:
  On the ſurface of the water there floats a liquid bitumen, although it be every day ſcummed off, as it doth on the lake Aſphaltites in Judæa: The Inhabitants uſe it as pitch: it is alſo found to be an excellent vulnerary, and good in curing old cacoethic and ſcrophulous ulcers.

healing drug