venous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vēnōsus (“full of veins, veiny”),^[2][3][4][5] from vēna (“vein”), the source of vein, with the suffix -ōsus.^[3][4][6] In classical Latin the adjective was also used of leaves and minerals with vein-like markings, and post-classical Latin used it for something having the form or function of a vein and for the blood in the veins.^[2] The Shorter Oxford allows that the English word was formed from the Latin noun and -ous,^[7] and Dictionary.com treats it as a variant of venose.^[8] Etymonline sees it as a classical correction of an earlier Middle English veinous, recorded from the early 15th century and shaped by the English noun.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having many or prominent veins: 1626, in Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1620s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1620–30.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense, "full of veins", was soon joined by the anatomical sense "of or relating to a vein", first recorded in 1634 in Thomas Johnson's translation of Ambroise Paré's surgery, a sense the post-classical Latin word already had.^[2] Barnhart dates "of or having to do with a vein" to 1681.^[4] The adjective then came to name the system of veins, as opposed to the arteries (1670),^[2] and the blood they carry (1653), which is low in oxygen and dark red.^[2][5] From 1791 venous was also used for that dark colour, or for the oxygen-poor state of the blood, in contrast with arterial.^[2] The revised OED treats the sense "having numerous veins" as obsolete after 1833,^[2] but Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary still list it, of a leaf or an insect's wing, and the Shorter Oxford equates it with the botanical term venose.^[6][5][7]

Timeline

• 1626 – having numerous or prominent veins.^[2][4][6]
• 1634 – of or relating to a vein or veins.^[2]
• 1653 – of the blood contained in the veins.^[2]
• 1670 – of the part of the circulatory system made up of veins, as in venous system.^[2]
• 1791 – having the dark colour or low oxygen of venous blood, in contrast with arterial.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the veins of the body: venous circulation.^[5][9][10]
2. Of blood: carried in the veins after passing through the capillaries, and so low in oxygen and dark red.^[5][6][9]
3. Having many veins, as a leaf or an insect's wing; veined.^[5][6][7]

Word family

• venously
• venousness
• nonvenous
• intravenous
• arteriovenous

Related words

• vein
• venose

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press