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veil [veil 词源字典]: veil: [13] The ultimate source of veil is Latin vēlum ‘sail, curtain, veil’, and English acquired it via Anglo-Norman veile. To reveal something is etymologically to ‘remove a veil’ from it.
=> reveal[veil etymology, veil origin, 英语词源]
vein: vein: [13] Vein comes via Old French veine from Latin vēna ‘blood vessel’, a word of uncertain origin. Acquired directly from Latin were the derivatives venose [17] and venous [17].
veld: veld: see field
vellum: vellum: see veal
velvet: velvet: [14] Velvet is etymologically a ‘hairy’ or ‘downy’ fabric. Its ultimate ancestor is Latin villus ‘hair, down’, which also produced English velours [18]. From it was derived medieval Latin villūtus ‘shaggy’, which passed into Old French as velu ‘velvety’. And this in turn formed the basis of a noun veluotte, from which English got velvet. The derivative velveteen dates from the 18th century.
=> velours
vend: vend: [17] Latin vēndere meant ‘sell’: it was a compound verb formed from vēnum ‘sale’ (source of English venal ‘corrupt, bribable’ [17]) and dare ‘give’ (source of English data). English acquired the word via French vendre, but it was preceded into the language by the derivative vendor [16].
=> data, date, donate, venal
vendetta: vendetta: see vindicate
veneer: veneer: [17] Veneer is ultimately the same word as furnish. Both come from Old French fournir, but veneer was routed via German, which borrowed fournir as furniren. The verbal noun derived from this, furnirung, was borrowed into English as faneering in the highly specialized sense ‘provision of a thin surface layer of fine wood’. The noun veneer was a back-formation from this.
=> furnish
venereal: venereal: [15] Latin venus meant ‘love, charm’ (it came ultimately from the same Indo- European base as produced English wish and winsome and Sanskrit vānchā ‘wish’). It was not that common as a generic term, its most familiar role being as the name of the Roman goddess of love. From it was derived venereus ‘of sexual love or sexual intercourse’, which English borrowed and adapted as venereal.

The term venereal disease dates from the mid 17th century. Other contributions made by Latin venus to English include venerable [15] and venerate [17] (from Latin venerārī ‘revere’, a derivative of venus), venial [13], and possibly venom.
=> venerate, venial, venus, winsome, wish
vengeance: vengeance: see vindicate
venison: venison: [13] Latin vēnātiō meant ‘hunting’, hence ‘hunted animals, game’ (it was derived from vēnārī ‘hunt’, which may be distantly related to English win). English acquired it via Old French venison in the sense ‘flesh of hunted animals used for food’, and the modern specialization to ‘deer-meat’ did not begin to emerge until the 18th century.
venom: venom: [13] Venom comes via Old French venim from Vulgar Latin *venīmen, an alteration of Latin venēnum ‘drug, poison’. It has been speculated that this was derived ultimately from venus ‘love’ (source of English venerate, venereal, etc), in which case its ancestral sense would presumably have been ‘love-potion’.
vent: vent: English has two words vent. The verb, ‘provide with an outlet’ [14], came via Old French esventer from Vulgar Latin *exventāre ‘let out air’. This was a compound verb formed from the Latin prefix ex- ‘out’ and ventum ‘wind’ (source also of English ventilate [15] and distantly related to English wind). Vent ‘slit in the back of a garment’ [15] goes back via Old French fente to Vulgar Latin *findita ‘slit’, a noun use of the feminine past participle of Latin findere ‘split’ (source also of English fission [19] and fissure [14]).
=> ventilate, wind; fission, fissure
ventriloquist: ventriloquist: [17] A ventriloquist is etymologically a ‘stomach-speaker’. The word is an anglicization of late Latin ventriloquus, a compound formed from Latin venter ‘stomach’ (source also of English ventral [18] and ventricle [14]) and loquī ‘speak’ (source of English colloquial [18], elocution [15], eloquent [14], loquacious [17], etc).

The ultimate model for this was Greek eggastrímuthos ‘speaking in the stomach’. The term was originally a literal one; it referred to the supposed phenomenon of speaking from the stomach or abdomen, particularly as a sign of possession by an evil spirit. It was not used for the trick of throwing one’s voice until the end of the 18th century.
=> colloquial, elocution, eloquent, locution, loquatious, ventral, ventricle
verb: verb: [14] Latin verbum originally meant simply ‘word’ (a sense preserved in English verbal [15], verbiage [18], and verbose [17]); the specific application to a ‘word expressing action or occurrence’, which passed into English via Old French verbe, is a secondary development. Verbum goes back ultimately to the Indo- European base *wer-, which also produced English word. English verve [17] comes ultimately from the Latin plural verba.
=> verbose, verve, word
verdict: verdict: [13] A verdict is etymologically a ‘true saying’. The word was borrowed from verdit, the Anglo-Norman variant of Old French veirdit. This was a compound term formed from veir ‘true’ (a descendant of Latin vērum and relative of English very) and dit ‘saying, speech’, which came from Latin dictum. The partial latinization of verdit to verdict took place in the 16th century.
=> diction, dictionary, very
verdigris: verdigris: [14] Etymologically, verdigris means ‘green of Greece’. It comes from Old French vertegrez, a conflation of vert de Grece ‘green of Greece’ (vert came from Latin viridis ‘green’, which also gave English verdant [16] and verdure [14] and may be related to Old English wīse ‘sprout, stalk’, Old Norse vísir ‘bud, sprout’, and Lithuanian veisti ‘propagate’). The reason for the application of the term to the patina on copper is not known.
=> verdant, verdure
verge: verge: English has two words verge. The noun [14], which now means ‘edge’, was originally used in English for ‘penis’ (it is to this day a technical term for the male reproductive organ of invertebrate animals). It comes via Old French verge from Latin virga ‘rod’ (source also of English virgule [19]), and the sense ‘edge’ emerged in the 15th century from the notion of the limits of territorial jurisdiction of the Lord High Steward, as symbolized by his ‘rod’ of office.

A verger is likewise etymologically someone who carries an official ‘rod’. The verb verge [17] comes from Latin vergere ‘bend, incline’, which also gave English converge [17] and diverge [17].
=> verger, virgule; converge, diverge
verify: verify: see very
veritable: veritable: see very