veneficium Latin · revision 32337

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la venēnum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [wɛ.neːˈfɪ.ki.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ve.neˈfiː.t͡ʃi.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''venēficium''' ''n'' (genitive venēficiī or venēficī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|venēficus|-ium|t1=poisoner, sorcerer]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) [[m|la|venēficus]] is formed from [[m|la|venēnum|t=poison, potion]] and the root of [[m|la|faciō|t=to make]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan derives [[m|la|venēnum]] from [[itc-pro|*wenes-no-]], a derivative of [[m|la|venus|t=desire, love]];^(de Vaan 2008) Walde and Hofmann took its first meaning to be a love potion, so that the word arose in sorcery.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the use of magic arts, sorcery, and a potent substance such as a love philtre: Cicero tells of an orator who forgot his whole case and blamed it on sorcery and spells, and Pliny the Elder calls the hippomanes a philtre.^(OLD 2012) It is also the act of poisoning, a charge in the Roman courts, as in Cicero's speech for Roscius of Ameria, and a poisonous substance.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In medieval law codes and in Church Latin it is witchcraft and magic.^(Köbler 2010)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 86/82 BC – The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' of a woman condemned for poisoning.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of sorcery and of charges of poisoning.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|sorcery|alt=Sorcery]], [[m|en|witchcraft]], magic; a magic potion, philtre.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # [[m|en|poisoning|alt=Poisoning]]; a poison.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[venēfica]]

+ * [[venēficus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}