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virens

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word virens

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
65–8 BC, Horace
Ultimate origin
Latin (vireō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vireo
Latin virens

Forms

virēns (genitive virentis); third-declension participle[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin vireō (“to be green”).[1][2][3] De Vaan calls the etymology of the verb uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Horace,[3] who has a green field and green ivy.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It means green, of plants and growing things, as Horace's green ivy and Ovid's box tree green all the year;[5][2] Gellius uses it of the green sea.[5][2] Figuratively it means fresh with youth: Horace tells a boy not to scorn love while grey hair stays away from his green age, and Apuleius has boys and girls in their green youth.[5][2] As a neuter plural noun, virentia, it means green plants, in Columella and Seneca.[1][2][5] Stelten glosses it "green".[6]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace of green ivy and of youth.[5][2][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the evergreen box tree.[5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of green plants.[1][2]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius of the green sea.[5][2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Green, growing green, verdant.[2][5][6]
  2. (figurative) Fresh, youthful, in the bloom of youth.[2][5]
  3. (neuter plural as noun) Green plants, herbage.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Virens.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/virens. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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