venenum

Latin

Alternative forms

• venīnum (early medieval)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *weneznom (“lust, desire”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, love”). See also Sanskrit वनति (vanati, “gain, wish, erotic lust”), Latin Venus, veneror, venia, vēnor and English wish.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [wɛˈneː.nũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [veˈnɛː.num]

Noun

venēnum n (genitive venēnī); second declension

1. a potion, juice
2. poison, venom
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.513–514:

     [...] falcibus et messae ad lūnam quaeruntur aēnīs
     pūbentēs herbae nigrī cum lacte venēnī; [...].

     And ripening herbs are brought out, having been reaped with bronze sickles at [the optimal] moon [phase], ill-omened with their milky venom.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	venēnum	venēna
genitive	venēnī	venēnōrum
dative	venēnō	venēnīs
accusative	venēnum	venēna
ablative	venēnō	venēnīs
vocative	venēnum	venēna

Synonyms

• (poison): toxicum (toxicon)

Derived terms

• venēfex
• venēfica
• venēficīna
• venēficiolum
• venēficium
• venēficō
• venēficus
• venēna
• venēnārius
• venēnātor
• venēnifer
• venēnifluus
• venēnifuga
• venēnō
• venēnōsē
• venēnōsis
• venēnōsitās
• venēnōsus

Descendants

• Aragonese: vereno
• Catalan: verè
• Emilian: vlaggn, vlen, vlei
• Istriot: vanen
• Italian: veleno (see there for further descendants)
• Occitan: veren
• Piedmontese: velen
• Romanian: venin
• Romagnol: vlèin, vlòin, vlei
• Sicilian: vilenu
• Borrowings:
  • → English: venene
  • → Portuguese: veneno
  • →? Proto-Albanian:
    • Albanian: vrer
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *gwenuɨn (see there for further descendants)
• Unsorted:
  • Dutch: venijn
  • Galician: veleno

Reflexes of the late variant venīnum: (some forms reflect ⇒ *venīmen)

• Balkan Romance^? (or directly from venēnum)
  • Aromanian: virin
  • Romanian: venin
• Padanian:
  • Old Ligurian: venim
  • Old Lombard: venin
    • Lombard: venin, verin, venil
  • Piedmontese: vrim
  • Venetan: verin
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: verí
  • Old French: venim (see there for further descendants)
  • Gascon: venim, verim, vrim
  • Occitan: verin
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: venín
  • >? Old Galician-Portuguese: vinino
  • Old Spanish: venino, vinino
    • Spanish: veneno (relatinised)
      • → Sardinian: venenu

References

• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to give a person poison in bread: dare venenum in pane
    
  • to take poison: venenum sumere, bibere
    
  • (ambiguous) to poison oneself: veneno sibi mortem consciscere
    
• Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1983), “veneno”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary]‎^[2] (in Spanish), volume V (Ri–X), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 769
• “venenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “venenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “venenum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “vĕnēnum”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 14: U–Z, page 238