Wormwood to Wormuth

A Peter Wormwood in Montgomery County, New York, was also Peter Wormuth.

When I first learned of this, I was confused.  How does Wormwood become Wormuth?

It's been quite a while since I learned of the 2 variants of the, apparent, same surname.  As I've been researching the variants recently, for the Wormuth Name Study, these 2 variants have appeared several times and something always makes me stop and wonder.

I know that Wormwood is the common name of a medicinal and toxic herb but I hadn't stopped during my family history research to remind myself exactly what plant that is.

Until last night...for no apparent reason....

You'll find wormwood in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Wormwood, Wormwood." when young Hamlet learns that his mother knew that her brother-in-law, Hamlet's uncle, had murdered Hamlet's father, the king.  It's also found and in several other old English literary works.  The herb is bitter; the knowledge that his mother was aware that his uncle had murdered his father and then married him was bitter to Hamlet.

Wormwood is the English common name of a species of Artemisia. specifically Artemisia absinthium, also commonly called absinthe.  As you may know, absinthe is the herb that flavors, with other herbs, the liqueur of the same name.  Absinthe, the liqueur was banned for some time in various places, including the United States, because it was said to cause hallucinations and addiction, but has since been proven to be no more harmful than any other alcoholic drink.  

Artemisia is also used to treat a variety of ailments and diseases and I used it myself to treat one of my cats who was dying of renal failure and it did give him some relief.  It's a bitter herb, used in syrupy liqueurs.

"The French word absinthe can refer either to the alcoholic beverage, or less commonly, to the actual wormwood plant. Absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium, which in turn comes from the Greek ἀψσίνθιον apsínthion, "wormwood".  from Wikipedia

Artemisia is an invasive plant in the United States and grows just about everywhere.  (I had quite a difficult time finding a public domain photo of the plant as I know it.  The picture below is much more substantial than most that I see around me, but you may recognize it anyway and it undoubtedly grows around you. I may take a picture myself in the next few months in case this is not a public domain photo as it said it was.)

Artemisia is also used to flavor vermuth.  Vermuth -- Wermuth/Wermut (German for wormwood [1]) -- Wormuth/Wormot.  

So we now know the meaning of our Wormuth name.  Whether other variants of the name, such as Warmuth, Warmouth, etc. have the same derivation is yet to be learned.

For me, it was a fun thing to learn.  Wormwood and Wormuth are the same name; as are all the variants mentioned.

1 - Wikipedia - vermouth