Adverse Adjectives - As Advertised

The media seem to be consumed with the Republican Presidential primary races. Not with the issues, necessarily, as much as with the internecine  battles and adverse publicity, especially if it is prurient in nature and venal. While some may consider this to be puerile, it is not venial, and much of the media are not averse to appealing primarily (pun intended) to prurient interests.

And there are the five words – all adjectives - for this week and next: adverse, averse, prurient, venal and venial. The first two are confusing in their similarity but not often used outside of religion, the last one used often and related to the others in meaning, and the middle two often confused and misused for one another. Sounds a little like Goldilock’s experience, doesn’t it? All of these words come originally from Latin.

The word venial was the first to arrive in English, in about 1300. Given its original and still primary meaning of “able to be forgiven or pardoned” it probably came through the church, although it also came through an Old French word with the same spelling. Eventually the word evolved to mean any offense that is relatively minor or trivial, unrelated to spiritual conduct. But in the Catholic world venial sins are still held in contradistinction from mortal sins, which are more serious. The Latin word for forgiveness is venia which, by the way, is related to the Latin word venus that means lust or sexual desire (for which Venus was the goddess).

Venus is also related to the word venal, which means able to be bribed. How do you get to bribery from lust? Okay, it may not be that hard to understand, but get your mind out of the gutter. The Latin word venum means “for sale”, which is good to know if you’re house hunting in Italy. The nominative form of the word venum is venus. “I just love that house” has more meaning than you thought, doesn’t it? Anyway, the phrase “that is for sale” in Latin becomes venalis, which after an adjustment by the French to vénal. By the time it came to English in the 1650s it just meant anything that is available for purchase. Over time it has developed a negative connotation, meaning a person who can be “bought” or bribed. And that’s how you get from lust to bribery.

So both venal and venial are words for things that are not good. Averse and adverse are bad responses or reactions to circumstances, and are not even as distantly related as venal and venial.

We’ll take adverse first since it came to English first (in the late 14^th century, while averse arrived about 50 years later in the middle of the 15^th century). It, like the word venial, came from an Old French word, in this case avers. Likewise, averse came from avers. However, you have to go back a little further to get to the different roots. The Old French got their word from the Latin word adversus, the past participle form of the word advertere, made by combining ad- “to”, with vertere “to turn”. Adversus meant “turned against or toward”, and avers meant “antagonistic or contrary.” Our word adverse means antagonistic or unfavorable, and also means acting against or opposing. If this were a book, the page on the other side of the spine would be the adverse page. But most often the word is used to refer to anything that stands in opposition to an opinion or path. 

The rest of this entry coming next Sunday...stay tuned.