veil

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English veile,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman veil, also veile and vail,^[5][6][7][8] a northern form of Old French voile (modern French voile).^[5][8][9] In part the word also comes from Anglo-Norman veil, sail, from Latin vēla, the neuter plural of vēlum (“sail, awning, curtain, woven cloth”), taken in Vulgar Latin as a feminine singular, and in part directly from the Latin noun, which in post-classical Latin also meant the veil of the Temple and a nun's veil.^{[5][9][10][3]} In modern French voile is masculine for a veil and feminine for a sail.^[11][8][12] The verb is from the noun,^[5][11][10] in early use after Anglo-Norman veler and Latin vēlō (“to cover, veil”).^[5][9] The further origin of the Latin noun is uncertain:^[10][5] Klein and Etymonline derive it from an earlier *vexlom and the root Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave”), the source of wick,^[3][9] Skeat linked it to vexillum (“standard, banner”) and vehō (“to carry”),^[13] and the OED suggests the same Indo-European base as Old Irish figid (“weaves, plaits”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The outer part of a nun's headdress, draped over the head and shoulders: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[5][10] Barnhart dates it probably before 1200 and Etymonline about 1200.^[10][9] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from about 1165–80 for a veil, a bridal canopy, a curtain and a caul, and in the phrase "to take the veil", to become a nun.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The first English uses refer to the nun's headdress;^[15][9] to take the veil, to become a nun, followed in the early 14th century.^[10][9][12] From before 1325 a veil was any light fabric covering a woman's head or face,^[5][10] and in church use a cloth hiding the altar or a cross.^[5] The Wycliffite Bible (1382) used it for the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Jewish Temple,^[5] which gave the figurative sense of a barrier between God and humankind, and between life and what lies beyond it, as in beyond the veil (early 17th century).^[5][15][12] The general figurative sense of something that hides or disguises is also first recorded in the Wycliffite Bible.^[10] To draw a veil over something dates from the early 18th century.^[15] The verb, first recorded in the Wycliffite Bible about 1384, meant to cover with a veil;^[5][10] from 1460, in Lydgate, it meant to conceal from knowledge.^[5] Since 1700 it has also meant to express a threat or feeling only indirectly.^[5] In northern English, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Shropshire dialect, a veil was the caul of a newborn child or calf.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the headdress of a nun.^[5]
• before 1325 – a piece of fabric covering a woman's head or face; a cloth hiding the altar in church.^[5]
• c. 1325 – to take the veil, to become a nun.^[10]
• 1382 – the veil of the Jewish Temple; something that hides or conceals.^[5][10]
• c. 1384 – verb, to cover with a veil.^[5]
• c. 1460 – verb, to conceal from knowledge or perception.^[5]
• 1567 – a curtain, awning or canopy.^[5]
• 1700 – verb, to express a feeling or threat indirectly.^[5]
• 1791 – the veil, the life of a nun.^[5]
• 1854 – photography, to make an image foggy.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of thin, usually transparent fabric worn by women over the head or face, to hide or protect it or as an ornament, as by a bride.^[17][4][5]
2. The part of a nun's headdress that falls round the face onto the shoulders, and by extension the life of a nun, as in to take the veil, to become a nun.^[17][4][5]
3. Something that covers, hides or separates, like a mask: a veil of fog over the harbour.^[17][4][5]
4. A cloth or curtain that hangs over or conceals something, as in a church or the ancient Jewish temple.^[5][4]
5. (botany) A thin membrane, a velum.^[17]

Verb

1. To cover with a veil, or as if with one: Clouds veiled the summit.^[4][5][17]
2. To hide or disguise; to keep from view or public knowledge.^[4][5]
3. (archaic) To admit a woman into a convent as a nun.^[4][5]

Word family

• veilless
• veillike
• unveil
• unveiled
• humeral veil

Related words

• velum
• reveal
• voile

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b 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 Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins