veninos

Forms

veninos m or n (feminine singular veninoasă, masculine plural veninoși, feminine/neuter plural veninoase)^[1] MDA2 records a regional variant verinos, which Pușcariu also cites.^[2][2][3]

Etymology

It is either inherited from Late Latin venēnōsus (“poisonous”) or formed from Romanian venin + -os, and DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give both explanations.^[4][2][5][1] Pușcariu, Scriban and Șăineanu take it straight from Latin, while Tiktin and NODEX derive it from venin.^{[3][6][7][8][9]} Ciorănescu lists it among the noun's derivatives.^[10] The Latin adjective is formed on venēnum (“potent herb, poison”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *wenesno-, a derivative of venus (“desire, love”).^[11][1]

Pușcariu compares Aromanian virinos and Megleno-Romanian anvirinos, both meaning “sad”, and the Romance forms Italian venenoso or velenoso and Spanish venenoso.^[3] The base noun has the same sense shift south of the Danube, where its forms mean “grief, torment”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Moxa's chronicle of 1620, in a list of dangerous creatures: „scorpie veninoasă, șarpe mușcătoriu” “a venomous scorpion, a biting snake”.^[5][8][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is literal: of animals and plants, or their organs and secretions, that carry venom.^[5][2] Dosoftei's Psalter speaks of the desert of Kadesh as famous for its venomous beasts, and 19th-century writers apply the word to poisonous mushrooms and herbs.^[5] From there it passed to people and their words: hostile, spiteful, full of malice, as in a folk poem collected by Alecsandri: „Grecu-i limbă veninoasă”.^[8][12] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) gives a second sense “bilious”, glossed by Latin biliosus.^[13]

Timeline

• 1620 – veninoasă of a scorpion in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[5][8]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda glosses it “poisonous” and “bilious”.^[13]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the figurative sense “spiteful”: gură veninoasă.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. venomous: of an animal, a plant or one of its organs, producing or secreting venin.^[4][2][1]
2. Containing venom or poison; poisonous to eat: ciuperci veninoase “poisonous mushrooms”.^[4][2]
3. (figurative) spiteful, hostile, full of malice: O privire veninoasă l-a urmărit până la ușă.^[4][12]

Related words

• venin
• învenina
• Latin venēnum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1455
3. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 176
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1192
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. veninos
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1399
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 693
8. ^ 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. veninos
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. veninos
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 642
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 748