A plant (Sambucus ebulus or dwarf elder) formerly used in folk medicine and believed to have been introduced to England from Scandinavian regions.
From 'Dane' combined with 'wort' (an Old English suffix meaning plant or herb, as in 'mugwort' and 'ragwort'), indicating a plant associated with the Danes.
The '-wort' suffix is a living fossil in English—it names dozens of medieval plants from 'St. John's Wort' to 'danewort,' showing how our language preserves centuries of herbal tradition.
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