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venenum - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.

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.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

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