The aim of this article is a semantic and formal analysis of the name wrotycz and related names in Polish dialects against the Slavic background. The history and etymology of these names as well as their semantic motivation are presented. All names are based on the Proto‑Slavic causativum * vortiti ‘to make something spin, to turn’ due to assigning tansy a magical power that was generally meant to reverse bad things and restore good things. Everything indicates that the form * vortyčь is Proto‑Slavic, and this proves that the Slavs from ancient times treated tansy as an apotropaic plant.

The article presents a new etymology of the Old Czech noun obudoň, listed in Klaret's Latin‑Czech dictionary "Glosář", in which he translates the Latin name of the plant mixalia ʽCordia myxaʼ. The etymology presented by us understands obudoň as a deverbative from the verb obuditi, a continuant of the Proto‑Slavonic verb * ob‑vǫditi (sę), in Czech with the ‑v‑ displaced. The Proto‑Slavonic verb * vǫditi is a causative from * vędnǫti ʽto wither, to dry’; the Old Czech obudoň could thus get its name in connection with the fact that in Europe the sebesten fruits were known only as dried.