The corpus record — Latin

venenum

potent herb, poison

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 13s 1 · 58.82/10k
Versus Paschales Pro Augusto Dicti 1 · 51.55/10k
Pro M. Caelio 19 · 22.43/10k
Pro A. Cluentio 27 · 12.99/10k
Epodon 3 · 9.98/10k
Dittochaeon 1 · 8.17/10k
Ephemeris id est totius diei negotium 1 · 7.71/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 1 · 5.88/10k
Themistocles 1 · 5.84/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 2 · 5.05/10k
Antoninus Caracallus 1 · 4.9/10k
Hannibal 1 · 4.89/10k

Densest 12 of 105 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. venenum — de Vaan

venenum 'potent herb, poison' [η. ο] (Ρ1.+) Derivatives: venenare 'to bewitch, poison' (PL+); veneficus 'of sorcery, of poison* (PI.+), veneficium 'sorcery, poisoning' (P1.+), trivenefica 'treble-dyed witch' (P1.+). Pit. *wenes-no-. ΪΕ cognates: see s.v. verms. The form suggests Pit. *wene$-no-, a derivative of venus 'desire, love' (cf. catena < *kates-na-). WH interpret the original meaning as 'love drink', which … — [de Vaan, s.v. venenum, p. 674]

2. vĕnēnum — Lewis & Short

vĕnēnum, i, n., orig., like fa/rmakon, any thing, esp. any liquid substance, that powerfully affects or changes the condition of the body,

I a potion, juice, drug (cf. virus).

I In gen.: qui venenum dicit, adicere debet, utrum malum an bonum; nam et medicamenta venena sunt: quia eo nomine omne continetur, quod adhibitum naturam ejus, cui adhibitum esset, mutat. Cum id quod nos venenum appellamus, Graeci fa/rmakon dicunt, apud illos quoque tam medicamenta, quam quae nocent hoc nomine continentur, etc., Dig. 50, 16, 236; cf. ib. 48, 8, 3.—Obsolete, however, in this general signif.: qui venenum malum fecit fecerit, an old legal formula in Cic. Clu. 54, 148: avaritia pecuniae studium habet: ea quasi venenis malis imbuta corpus animum que virilem effeminat, Sall. C. 11, 3.—

II In partic.

A In a bad sense, like fa/rmakon (freq. and class.).

1 A potion that destroys life, poison, venom (cf. toxicum).

a Lit.: ipsius veneni quae ratio fingitur? ubi quaesitum est? quem ad modum paratum? cui, quo in loco traditum? Cic. Cael. 24, 58; 21, 51; id. Clu. 60, 165; 61, 169; id. Phil. 11, 6, 13; id. N. D. 3, 33, 81; id. Tusc. 1, 40, 96: nobis veratrum est acre venenum, Lucr. 4, 638; Verg. A. 4, 514; Hor. C. 1, 37, 28; id. Epod. 3, 5; 5, 22; id. S. 2, 3, 131: dare, Liv. 40, 24, 5.—

b Trop., mischief, evil, destruction (rare, and not in Cic.): discordia ordinum est venenum urbis hujus, Liv. 3, 67, 6: regis Rupili pus atque venenum, i e. virulence, Hor. S. 1, 7, 1.—Of bad poems, Cat. 44, 12; 77, 5; cf.: humili veneno laedere aliquem, Stat. Th. 1, 171: venena linguarum, Treb. Poll. Trig. Tyr. 30: lingua est suffusa veneno, Ov. M. 2, 777.—

2 Lit., a magical potion, charm: item ut Medea Peliam concoxit senem: Quem medicamento et suis venenis dicitur Fecisse rursus ex sene adulescentulum, Plaut. Ps. 3, 2, 81: dira Medeae, Hor. Epod. 5, 62: Colcha, id. C. 2, 13, 8: Colchica, id. Epod. 17, 35; Cic. Or. 37, 129; Hor. C. 1, 27, 22; id. Epod. 5, 22; 5, 87; id. S. 1, 8, 19; 2, 1, 48; Ov. M. 7, 209; 14, 55; 14, 403: qui quodam quasi veneno perficiat, ut veros heredes moveat, Cic. Off. 3, 19, 76: id quod amatorium appellatur, venenum est, Dig. 48, 8, 3.—

b Trop., charm, seduction: aetas et corpus tenerum et morigeratio, Haec sunt venena formosarum mulierum, Afran. ap. Non. 2, 7: intactos isto satius tentare veneno (i. e. amore), Prop. 2, 12 (3, 3), 19: blandum, Sil. 7, 453; 11, 309: occultum inspires ignem fallasque veneno (i. e. amoris), Verg. A. 1, 688.—

B In a good sense.

1 A coloring material, a color, dye, paint (poet.): alba nec Assyrio fucatur lana veneno, Verg. G. 2, 465; Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 207; Ov. R. Am. 351.— *

2 A drug used in embalming, Luc. 8, 691.

3. venénum — Walde–Hofmann

venénum, -i n. ,Zaubertrank, Trünkchen" (u. zw. bonum und malum, s. Dig. 50,16, 236); bes. „Gift, Saft* (seit Afran., rom.); venenätus, -a, -wm seit Rhet. Her, veneno, -üre seit Cic., venänätor seit Aug., venénürius, -a, -um seit Petron, venenifer, -a, -um seit Petron, venenösus, -a, -um seit Àug., veneficus, -a, -um „Gift mischend*, davon venéficus, -i, venéfica, -ae „Giftmischer(in)*, veneficium, - n. seit Pit. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. venénum, p. 1655]

In the wild

venenis Seneca, Octavia 1
veneni Ausonius, Ephemeris id est totius diei negotium 3.32
venenum Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 20.120.6
venenum Prudentius, Cathemerina 9.89
venenis Seneca, Medea 1
venenum Prudentius, Hamartigenia 1.609

6 of 476 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. venenum (scan pp. 674-675; entry #1936).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. venénum (scan p. 1655; entry #3178). Root candidates: *ve-.

Downloads

Word record (JSON)·Concordance (CSV)·Frequencies (CSV)·Cite (BibTeX)

CC BY 4.0 with receipt attribution — every file carries its license line. What is exportable

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.