varnish: [14] Varnish may come ultimately from Berenice (Greek Bereníkē), the name of a city in Cyrenaica, Libya, which was credited with the first use of varnishes. Bereníkē became a generic term in medieval Greek, and is thought to lie behind medieval Latin veronix ‘resin used in varnishes’, which passed into English via Old French vernis. [varnish etymology, varnish origin, 英语词源]