venerar

Forms

venerar (first-person singular present venero, first-person singular preterite veneré, past participle venerado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin venerārī (“to revere, worship”).^[2][3][4][1] The same Latin verb gave Catalan venerar, first recorded about 1460, French vénérer, about 1450, and Italian venerare.^[5][6][1]

The Latin verb first meant to ask the gods for a favour, and later to revere.^[6][7] It is built on venus (“desire, charm”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁-os (“desire”), the source also of the name of the goddess Venus.^[8][1] Related Latin words are venia and venēnum.^[1] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares wish.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb about 1440, in the Corbacho and in Santillana; the Breve diccionario gives 1438.^[2][3] Its sense from the start is to honour and revere.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds the verb next in Percyvall's dictionary of 1591;^[2] Autoridades quotes it from the early 17th century, and it is in Covarrubias but not in C. de las Casas.^[2] Covarrubias reports that some explained the Latin word as if from veniam oro “I ask for pardon”.^[9] Autoridades gives two senses, to respect or honour a particular excellence and to worship God, the saints and sacred things.^[10] Corominas notes that today it is a literary word, used now and then among educated people.^[2] In the Americas it is first recorded in Peru in 1570, of the worship of an idol.^[11]

Timeline

• 1438 – first record, in the Corbacho.^[3][2]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin ueneror as onrar & acatar.^[12]
• 1570 – first record in the Americas, in Peru.^[11]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “to worship”.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as “to honour”.^[9]
• 1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “to revere” and “to worship”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology for the first time.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To revere someone for their holiness, dignity or great virtues, or something for what it stands for or recalls: Veneraban la memoria de su fundador.^[4][1][15]
2. (transitive) To worship God, the saints or sacred things.^[4][15]

Word family

• venerable
• veneración
• venerando
• venerador

Related words

• venial
• venéreo
• Latin veneror

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 769
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venerar
4. ^ a b c 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. venerar
5. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 9, 103
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vénérer
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1378
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 445
11. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. venerar
12. ^ 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. venerar
13. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 229
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venerar