venereal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English venerealle,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin venereus (“of Venus, of sexual love”) with the suffix -al,^{[5][4][6][7][8]} the Latin adjective being from venus (“love, sexual desire”),^{[2][3][6][7][8]} also the name of the Roman goddess of love,^[9][5] from Proto-Indo-European *wen- (“to desire, strive for”).^[7][2] Ayto says that the same base produced wish and winsome.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of sexual desire or intercourse: in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which Barnhart dates to probably before 1425 and the OED to about 1425 in a manuscript of about 1475.^[4][5] Etymonline gives the early 15th century,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English used several adjectives from the Latin word in the Middle Ages and after: Chaucer's Wife of Bath calls herself venerient, subject to the planet Venus, and venerous and venerean follow in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[7] Venereal itself was also applied to people under Venus's influence and given to lust (1652–1728),^[5][3] and once, in 1598, to physical beauty.^[5] The medical meaning, of a disease passed on by sexual intercourse, appears in 1658 in the OED and the 1650s in Etymonline,^[5][7] and Ayto likewise dates venereal disease to the mid 17th century.^[9] Johnson (1755) still defined the word only as "relating to love".^[10] From about then the medical meaning spread: to people with such a disease (1683) and to the noun, a sufferer (1788) or the disease itself (1843).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – of sexual desire or intercourse.^[4][5]
• 1598 – physically beautiful (rare, obsolete).^[5]
• 1652 – of persons, under the influence of Venus, lustful (obsolete after 1728).^[5]
• 1658 – of a disease, communicated by sexual intercourse.^[5][7]
• 1683 – of a person, having such a disease.^[5]
• 1788 – noun, a person with such a disease.^[5]
• 1843 – noun, the disease itself.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to sexual desire or intercourse.^[3][11][5]
2. Of a disease, passed on through sexual intercourse; relating to such a disease: a venereal ward.^[3][11][5]
3. Infected with such a disease.^[11][3][5]
4. Of or involving the genitals.^[11]
5. Arousing sexual desire; aphrodisiac.^[11][3]
6. (obsolete, 1652–1728) Of a person, lascivious.^[3][5]

Noun

1. A sexually transmitted disease.^[5]
2. A person with such a disease.^[5]

Word family

• venereally
• postvenereal
• nonvenereal
• venereal disease

Related words

• veneration
• Venus
• venerate
• venerable
• venial
• venery
• win
• wish
• winsome

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins