veneno

Forms

veneno m (plural venenos)^[1] The 15th century has both veneno and venino.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin venēnum (“potent herb, drug; poison”), taken over as a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss glosses the Latin word as a philtre or magic potion to win love, a remedy, and a poison.^[2] In Latin it meant any powerful drug, good or bad: the Digest advises saying whether a good or a bad one is meant, since medicines too are poisons in that sense.^[5]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Italic *wenes-no-, a derivative of venus (“desire, love”), and reports Walde and Hofmann's view that it first meant “love drink”, a word of sorcery.^[6] Wiktionary traces the Latin word back to Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, love”).^[1]

The inherited outcomes of the Latin word are Italian veleno, Romanian venin, Old French venim, Occitan verin, Catalan verí and Galician veleno; the REW sets the Spanish and Portuguese word apart as learned.^[7][1][8] Medieval Spanish used Old Spanish venino, and the form with -e- is first recorded in 1582, in Góngora.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, in the spellings veneno and venino.^[2] Cunha himself puts venino in the 15th century and veneno in the 16th.^[3] The earliest dated prose example in the CTA is in the Livro dos Mártires of 1513.^[10] The sense was already “poison”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) and Folqman (1755) render it with Latin venenum, and Folqman adds toxicum and virus.^[11][12] Bluteau's book of synonyms gives peçonha, rosalgar, tóxico and phrases such as “hidden killer”.^[13]

Figurative senses for whatever corrupts morally, for malice and for a spiteful person were in the dictionaries by the early 20th century.^[14] Aurélio and Priberam add a veterinary sense, a disease of animals of the anthrax kind, and the sense “virus” for the agent of a contagious disease.^[15][16] Brazilian informal speech uses it jokingly for sugar-cane spirit, and in Portugal it can mean drunkenness.^{[2][15][17][18]} Houaiss records the figurative sense “charm that attracts, seduction”.^[2]

The word was borrowed into Kimbundu as venenu and into Kadiwéu as weneeno.^[1]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, as veneno and venino.^[2][3]
• 1513 – veneno in the Livro dos Mártires.^[10]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro enters Veneno.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau repeats Isidore's explanation that the Latin word is named from running through the veins.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with venenum, toxicum and virus.^[12]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos lists the figurative senses “what corrupts” and “person of bad character”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. poison: any natural or prepared substance that destroys or disturbs the vital functions of an organism.^[2][15][1]
2. The venom of certain animals; peçonha.^[2][17][19]
3. (figurative) Anything that corrupts or does moral harm: Aquelas ideias eram veneno para os alunos.^[2][15]
4. (figurative) malice, spite, ill will: Havia veneno em cada palavra dela.^[2][15][1]
5. A malicious interpretation of what someone says or does; hence deitar veneno em “to put a malicious construction on”.^[2][18]
6. A person of bad character who harms others.^[2][15][17]
7. (figurative) A charm that attracts; seduction.^[2]
8. (Brazil, informal, jocular) Sugar-cane spirit, cachaça.^[2][15]
9. (veterinary) A disease of animals, a kind of anthrax.^[15][16]
10. (Portugal, regional) drunkenness.^[17][18]

Word family

• envenenar
• contraveneno
• antiveneno

Related words

• antivenenoso
• envenenado
• envenenador
• envenenamento
• venenífero
• veneníparo
• venenosamente
• venenosidade
• venenoso
• venéfico
• venefício
• Latin venēnum
• Spanish veneno

Usage notes

Houaiss records a separate adjective and noun veneno (1881), relating to the Veneni, an ancient people of Liguria, or one of them, from Latin Veneni.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. veneno
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. veneno
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. veneno
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. venenum
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. venenum
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9195
8. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. veleno
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 769
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. veneno
11. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. veneno
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. veneno
13. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. veneno
14. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. veneno
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. veneno
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. veneno
17. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. veneno
18. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9428
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. veneno