woad

Meanings

1. The plant Isatis tinctoria.
2. The blue vat dye made from the leaves of the plant through partial drying and fermentation.

1. To plant or cultivate woad.
2. To dye with woad.

Etymology

From Middle English wode, from Old English wād (“woad”), from Proto-West Germanic *waiʀd, from Proto-Germanic *waizdaz (“woad”), from Proto-Indo-European *woydʰ-. Cognate with Old Frisian wēd (“woad”), Dutch wede (“woad”), German Waid (“woad”), and with French guède, Italian guado (“woad”) (both borrowed from Frankish). See also weed.