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): /u̯eˈneː.num/, [u̯ɛˈneːnʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /veˈne.num/, [veˈnɛːnum]

Noun

venēnum n (genitive venēnī); second declension

1. a potion, juice
2. poison, venom
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 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).

Case	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

• venēnō

Descendants

• Aragonese: vereno
• Catalan: verè
• Emilian: 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: [Term?]
    • 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
    
• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983) “veneno”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (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, volumes 14: U–Z, page 238