Venus

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English Venus, inherited from Old English Venus,^[2] borrowed from Latin Venus (“the goddess of love”),^[3][4][2] the personification of the common noun venus, love, sexual desire, loveliness, beauty, charm.^[4][5][6][7] According to Dictionary.com, this was at first a neuter noun for physical desire, which came to mean what excites desire, and then a goddess who personified it.^[8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wenos- and Proto-Indo-European *uenh₁-os (“desire”);^[9] Etymonline gives the root as *wen- (“to desire, strive for”).^[4] The noun is the source of veneror (“to worship, pay homage”), and so of venerate,^[9][6][4] and it is akin to wish and win.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman goddess of beauty and love: late Old English,^[4][3] in Solomon and Saturn.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to before the 12th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Romans applied the name to the Greek Aphrodite and to the Egyptian Hathor.^[4] From 1770, in Percy's translation of Mallet, English used it for corresponding goddesses of other peoples.^[3] The planet takes its name from the same use in Latin;^[4] it is recorded in English from about 1290, in the South English Legendary,^[3][4][7] while Old English had called it morgensteorra and æfensteorra.^[4] A statue or image of the goddess was a Venus before 1568, in Ascham,^[3][4] although the Shorter Oxford finds this sense in late Middle English.^[11] The word also stood for what she represented: sexual desire from 1513, in Douglas's Virgil,^[3] a charm or attractive quality from 1540 to 1711,^[3][12] and a beautiful woman from about 1572.^[3][4] Further uses were in alchemy, for the metal copper,^[11][7][13] in heraldry, for the tincture green (1572–1704),^[12][11] and for the best throw at huckle-bones (1611).^[12][11] In zoology a genus of bivalve molluscs is named after her (1777),^[12][11][7] and in archaeology a palaeolithic female figurine with exaggerated breasts, belly and buttocks has been a Venus since 1912.^[3][4] English dialects used the name for monkshood, as Venus'-chariot-drawn-by-doves in Berkshire and Venus'-doves in Devon, and in Scots venus could be an adjective meaning impure or immoral.^[14]

Timeline

• late Old English – the Roman goddess of beauty and love.^[3][4]
• c. 1290 – the second planet from the sun.^[3]
• 1513 – sexual desire, lust (obsolete by 1746 in the OED).^[3]
• 1540 – a quality that excites love (last recorded 1711).^[3]
• before 1568 – a statue or image of the goddess.^[3]
• c. 1572 – a beautiful or attractive woman.^[3]
• 1572 – in heraldry, the tincture green (last recorded 1704).^[12]
• 1611 – the highest throw at huckle-bones.^[12]
• 1770 – a corresponding goddess in another mythology.^[3]
• 1777 – a genus of bivalve molluscs.^[12]
• 1912 – a palaeolithic female figurine.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The Roman goddess of love and beauty, identified with the Greek Aphrodite.^{[2][15][10][3]}
2. The second planet from the sun, with its orbit between those of Mercury and the earth; the morning star or evening star.^[2][10][3]
3. A very beautiful woman: To the young sculptor she was a living Venus.^[10][3][8]
4. A statue or picture of the goddess.^[3][11]
5. (archaeology) A palaeolithic female figurine with exaggerated breasts, belly and buttocks; also called a Venus figurine.^[3][11][8]
6. (zoology; often lowercase) A rounded bivalve mollusc of the genus Venus or the family Veneridae, or its shell; also called a Venus clam.^[11][12]
7. mount of Venus: the mons veneris.^[15][11]
8. (obsolete, 1513–1746) Sexual desire or its indulgence; lust.^[3] The Shorter Oxford keeps the sense as literary.^[11]
9. (obsolete, 1540–1711) A charm or attractive quality.^[3][11]
10. (obsolete) In alchemy, the metal copper.^[11][7]
11. (obsolete, 1572–1704) In heraldry, the tincture green, or vert.^[12][11][7]
12. (archaic) The highest throw in playing with huckle-bones.^[11][12]

Word family

• venereal
• Venusian
• Venus flytrap
• Venus's girdle

Related words

• venerate
• venerable
• venom
• win
• wish

Usage notes

The OED also has a separate noun Venus, recorded from 1629, which is a variant of or an error for Venice, influenced by the goddess's name.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins