Etymologically
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veneo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈweː.ne.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈvɛː.ne.o][1]

Forms

vēneō (present infinitive vēnīre, perfect active vēniī or vēnīvī, supine vēnitum); irregular conjugation[1] It is conjugated like eō, with the future vēnībō.[2][3] Plautus also has passive forms such as vēnīrī and vēnear.[2][4] It is also spelled vaeneō.[4]

Etymology

It continues ⟨*vēnum īre⟩, “to go for sale”, from the accusative of vēnus (“sale”) and eō (“to go”); vēndō “to sell” is likewise ⟨*vēnum dare⟩ “to give for sale”.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *wesno- and Proto-Indo-European *ues-no- (“price”), cognate with Sanskrit वस्न (vasná-, “price, value”), Ancient Greek ὦνος (ônos, “price”) and Hittite ušnii̯e/a- (“to put up for sale”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Pseudolus, reports that a woman has been sold to a Macedonian soldier (eam vēniisse mīlitī Macedoniō).[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Vēneō serves as the passive of vēndō, “to be sold”, of goods and of people sold as slaves (Plautus, Cato, Cicero).[2][1] Of services and favours it means to be disposed of for money, usually dishonestly, and of venal persons to be bought: Sallust's Jugurtha had come to believe that at Rome everything was for sale (omnia vēnīre).[2]

Church Latin glosses it “go on sale, be sold”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a woman sold to a soldier.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of people sold.[2][6]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust: omnia vēnīre.[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be sold, go on sale; to be sold as a slave.[2][1][5]
  2. (of favours, persons) To be bought, be venal.[2]

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