venin

Forms

venin n (plural veninuri)^[1] Scriban records the variant verin in Maramureș.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin venēnum (“poison”).^[4][5][6][3] Wiktionary allows a later Latin form venīnum as the direct source.^[1] Pușcariu cites Ascoli for such a form behind several Romance words.^[3] De Vaan derives the Latin word from venus (“desire, love”), perhaps first as a love potion.^[7]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian virin, Megleno-Romanian virin and Istro-Romanian verir.^[4][8][3] Albanian vërer “bile” is a cognate.^[4][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian veleno, Old French velin, French venin and Spanish veneno.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (James 3:8), the verse on the tongue that the New Testament of 1648 renders „plinu-i de veninul morției” “it is full of deadly poison”.^[10] In Psalm 139:3 the Coresi Psalter of 1570 has veninul, where the Psaltirea Scheiană reads iadul;^[11][12][5] MDA2 dates the word from Candrea's edition of the Scheiană, which records the variants.^[11][12][5]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is the poison of snakes, insects and spiders, and also poison made from plants.^[6][12] Figuratively it means malice, spite.^[6][1] In popular speech it is also the bile, and so grief, vexation and anger: a face venin “to be deeply upset”, a-și vărsa veninul “to vent one's spleen”.^[6][10] Pușcariu compares the sense “bile” with Albanian, and notes that the Aromanian word means “sorrow, grief”.^[3][8]

In a Muntenian dialect the word also names blood serum.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – venin in the Codicele Voronețean (James 3:8), the first record.^[10]
• 1570 – veninul in the Coresi Psalter (Psalm 139:3).^[11]
• 1648 – veninul morției “deadly poison” in a New Testament (James 3:8).^[10]
• 1649 – veninul in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – veninul in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Venom: a toxic substance produced by the glands of some animals (snakes, insects, spiders) or by some plants, for attack or defence; also a poison made from plants.^[6][5][1]
2. (figurative) malice, spite, hatred: vorbe cu venin “spiteful words”.^[6][16]
3. (popular) The bile;^[6][16] (figurative) grief, vexation, anger.^[6][16]

Word family

• veninat
• veninariță
• veninos

Related words

• învenina
• Aromanian virin
• Latin venēnum

Usage notes

Phrases include a face venin “to get very upset”, a pune cuiva venin la inimă “to upset someone deeply” and a-și vărsa veninul “to vent one's anger”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1399
3. ^ a b c d e f Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 176
4. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. venin
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1455
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1192
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1113
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9195
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. venin
11. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 139:3
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. venin
13. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 460
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. veninul
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Proverbs 23:31
16. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. venin