Etymologically
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venenum

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [wɛˈneː.nũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [veˈnɛː.num][1]

Forms

venēnum n (genitive venēnī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *wenes-no-, a derivative of venus “desire, love”, from the root *wenh₁- “to desire”.[2][3][1] Walde and Hofmann took the first sense to be “love potion”, from magic, but de Vaan also allows a shift from “with desire” through “addictive” to “poisonous”.[2] Cognate with Sanskrit वनति (vanati, “desires, wins”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, who says Medea cooked an old man with her drugs and made him young again.[2][3] Köbler dates it from Afranius.[4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It was first any potent herb or substance used in medicine or magic, a drug or charm, as Pacuvius' drugs that turned a friend's heart, and the law spoke of malum venēnum “a harmful drug”.[3][5] Then it was a poison, as Accius' veins steeped in a viper's venom, and anything destructive, as Varro's frost, poison to tender roots.[3] With an adjective of place it meant a dye, as Virgil's Assyrian dye.[3]

Döderlein says venēnum was an artificial, sweet-tasting poison, virus a natural animal poison, and toxicum poison as a technical term.[6] Vulgar Latin *venīmen gave Old French venim, the source of English venom in the mid-13th century.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of Medea's drugs.[3][4]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius speaks of a viper's venom.[3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a dye.[3][4]
  • mid-13th century – English venom is recorded.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A potent drug, herb, charm (for medicine or magic).[3]
  2. A poison, venom.[3]
  3. Anything harmful or destructive.[3]
  4. A dye.[3]

Word family

  • venēfica
  • venēficium
  • venēficus
  • venēnārius
  • venēnifer
  • venēnō
  • venēnōsus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes toxicum (poison as a natural-history term), venēnum (an artificial, tempting poison) and vīrus (an animal's venom).[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com