madder

1) A herbaceous plant cultivated for medicinal purposes and the dye obtained from its root.

Its use predates the Norman Conquest and it was being imported from the Low Countries in the Middle Ages: 1453 1 poke mader, Hull

1487 ‘tithes of wald, mader and rapis, by whatever name they are expressed’, Fountains Abbey

1576 Certeyne mather price iijs, Leeds. A dye made from alum was called madder: 1510 Item of ylke a seke or poket mader of alome jd, York.

dates 1453 1487 1510 1576

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