veneno

Forms

veneno m (plural venenos)^[1] The Old Spanish form was venino (also written uenino), still usual in the 16th century;^[2][3] Lope de Vega once rhymes it with divino in the mouth of a mulatto woman.^[2][3] Asturian has venín “poison” and benín “pimple with pus showing through the skin”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish venino, inherited from Medieval Latin venīnum, from the classical Latin venēnum (“drug; poison”).^[2][4][5][1] Corominas puts the change of ending down to the very frequent suffix -īnum; it took place in almost all the Romance languages: Catalan verí, Occitan verin, French venin, and dialects of Italy and the Alps.^[2] Tuscan veleno escaped it, and perhaps Romanian venin.^[2][6] In Portuguese the word died out, perhaps because the expected form would have become a homonym of vinho (“wine”).^[2]

The present form is a learned remodelling on the Latin word.^[2][1] It appeared first in the adjective venenoso, in Alonso de Palencia and Nebrija, and only much later prevailed in the noun.^[2] The BDELC dates it to 1582, in Góngora, though Corominas thinks it existed about 1490.^[4]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *wenes-no-, a derivative of venus (“desire, love”);^[7] Walde and Hofmann took the first meaning to be a love potion, from sorcery, but it may also have been a neutral adjective meaning poisonous, which developed from a sense of desire through that of addiction.^[7] The OLD gives as its first sense a potent herb or other substance used in medicine or magic.^[8] Wiktionary takes the root back to Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, love”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is venino in Berceo; the Libro de Alexandre and other 13th-century texts have it too.^[2][4][3] In Alfonso X's Estoria de España a disciple destempro un uenino & dio ge lo a beuer “mixed a poison and gave it to him to drink”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Nebrija venino meant both “pus” and “poison”.^[2][10] After Góngora, Cervantes and Covarrubias the learned veneno became general, helped by the decline of the older synonym ponzoña.^[2] Covarrubias called it a generic name used in a good sense and a bad one, since it sometimes means a medicine; he also applied it to women's cosmetics and to the dyer's colours.^[11][12] Autoridades still gave the sense “medicine prepared at the apothecary's”, but called it little used.^[13]

The Academy's 1884 edition marked the senses “dye” and “cosmetic” as obsolete and listed the figurative senses: anything harmful to health or to the soul, and anger or rancour.^[14] The DLE adds a technical sense, a substance that inhibits a catalyst.^[5]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – venino in Berceo.^[4][2]
• 1270–1284 – uenino in Alfonso X's Estoria de España.^[9]
• 1399 – the adjective veninoso, in the translation of Gower's Confessio amantis.^[2][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has venino for both “pus” and “poison”, and venenoso.^[2]
• 1570 – venino still in Cristóbal de las Casas.^[2]
• 1582 – veneno in Góngora.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias uses both veneno and venino.^[2][11]
• early 17th century – envenenar in Quevedo.^[2][4]
• 1884 – the Academy lists the figurative senses.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. poison: a substance that seriously harms or kills a living being that takes it in; also an animal's venom.^[5][1]
2. Anything harmful to health: El tabaco es un veneno para los pulmones.^[5]
3. Something that does moral harm.^[5]
4. A hostile feeling such as anger or rancour: Contestó con veneno en la voz.^[5][14]
5. (technology) A substance that inhibits a catalyst.^[5]

Word family

• venenoso
• envenenar
• contraveneno

Related words

• venéfico
• Latin venenum
• Italian veleno
• Catalan verí

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 769
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. veneno
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. veneno
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. veneno
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. veneno
10. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. veneno
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1377
12. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1378
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. veneno
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1078