venerabilis

Forms

venerābilis (neuter venerābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin veneror (“to worship, revere”) + -bilis.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil calls the golden bough the venerable gift of the fateful wand.^[2][3] Lewis & Short note that it is not found before the Augustan age.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is worthy of reverence for holiness, age or rank: Livy calls Evander venerable for the wonder of letters, and more venerable still for the belief in his mother Carmenta's divinity.^[2] Quintilian applies it to the great men of the past.^[4] Valerius Maximus uses it actively, of the Senate's reverence towards the gods.^[2] In the Church it became a title of honour, and in medieval Latin ⟨vir venerābilis⟩ is the title of bishops and abbots, ⟨vīta venerābilis⟩ the life of a monk.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the golden bough.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of Evander.^[2][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^[3]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of the great men of the past.^[4][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Worthy of respect for holiness or age, venerable, august.^[2][4][1]
2. Showing reverence, reverential.^[2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Reverend, a title of honour.^[5]
4. (Medieval Latin) vir venerābilis, title of a bishop or abbot;^[6] vīta venerābilis, the life of a monk.^[6]

Related words

• veneror
• venerātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill