venenatus

Forms

venēnātus (feminine venēnāta, neuter venēnātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin venēnum (“poison”) + -ātus;^[2] Lewis & Short treat it as the participle of venēnō (“to poison”).^[3] De Vaan traces venēnum to Proto-Italic *wenes-no-, a derivative of venus (“desire, love”);^[4] Walde–Hofmann took its first meaning to be “love potion”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[5] Lucretius has venomous snakes, venenatis colubris.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is said of animals and plants furnished with poison, venomous or poisonous, and as a neuter noun a venomous creature.^[2] Vitruvius uses it of the deadly power of some waters.^[2] Of weapons and bait it means poisoned: Cicero has panthers caught with poisoned meat.^[2] Ovid uses it of magic, a wand with magical power.^[2] Church Latin keeps the sense venomous, poisonous.^[6]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of venomous snakes.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of poisoned meat.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a magic wand.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Venomous, poisonous;^[2][1] as a noun, a venomous creature.^[2]
2. Poisoned.^[2][1]
3. Having magical power, enchanted.^[2][1]

Related words

• venēnum
• venēnō
• venēficus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson