velum

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin vēlum,^[2][3][4] short for vēlum palātī (“veil of the palate”) or vēlum pendulum (“pendulous veil”),^[4] a use of Latin vēlum (“sail, awning, curtain, covering, veil”).^[5][6][7] Etymonline calls the anatomical term Medical Latin.^[6] The plural of the noun, vēla, is the source of veil,^[8][4] which Barnhart treats as a doublet of this word,^[2] and the noun also underlies revēlō, the source of reveal.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The soft palate: 1753 in the OED, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[5][2][3] The earliest quotation the OED prints for it is from the Encyclopædia Britannica of about 1768–9, and Etymonline gives 1771.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a term of anatomy, comparing a membrane to a hanging curtain or veil.^[4][3] Anatomists then applied it to other parts: membranes of the brain from 1839 and 1840, and a small space in the bladder from about 1835.^[5] In the 19th century zoologists and botanists took it up for membranes in molluscs and jellyfish (1826) and for the covering of certain fungi (1832).^[5][4] It was also used of the velarium from 1843.^[5] The adjective velar, pronounced with the soft palate, is recorded from 1876.^[2]

Timeline

• 1753 – the soft palate.^[5][3][2]
• 1781 – a screen or protection (obsolete).^[5]
• 1826 – in zoology, a membrane or membranous covering.^[5]
• 1832 – in botany, a membrane in certain fungi.^[5]
• 1839 – a fold of the pia mater in the brain.^[5]
• 1843 – a velarium.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The soft palate.^[3][5][9]
2. (anatomy) Any of various membranes likened to a veil, such as those in the brain.^[5][9][3]
3. (zoology) A membrane in an animal, such as the one around the rim of a jellyfish's umbrella or the larval swimming organ of a mollusc.^[3][9][5]
4. (botany) A membranous covering in certain fungi; a veil.^[5][9][3]
5. A velarium.^[5]

Related words

• veil
• velar
• velarium
• reveal
• vellum

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins