Etymologically
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veneficium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [wɛ.neːˈfɪ.ki.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ve.neˈfiː.t͡ʃi.um][1]

Forms

venēficium n (genitive venēficiī or venēficī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin venēficus (“poisoner, sorcerer”) + -ium.[2][1] venēficus is formed from venēnum (“poison, potion”) and the root of faciō (“to make”).[3][1] De Vaan derives venēnum from Proto-Italic *wenes-no-, a derivative of venus (“desire, love”);[3] Walde and Hofmann took its first meaning to be a love potion, so that the word arose in sorcery.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the use of magic arts, sorcery, and a potent substance such as a love philtre: Cicero tells of an orator who forgot his whole case and blamed it on sorcery and spells, and Pliny the Elder calls the hippomanes a philtre.[2] It is also the act of poisoning, a charge in the Roman courts, as in Cicero's speech for Roscius of Ameria, and a poisonous substance.[2][5] In medieval law codes and in Church Latin it is witchcraft and magic.[4][6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[3][4]
  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a woman condemned for poisoning.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of sorcery and of charges of poisoning.[2][5][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sorcery, witchcraft, magic; a magic potion, philtre.[2][5][6][1]
  2. Poisoning; a poison.[2][5][1]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson