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Origin and history of Venice

Venice

(Italian Venezia, German Venedig), late 14c. (mid-12c. as a surname), from Medieval Latin Venetia, from Veneti (Greek Ouenetoi), name of an ancient people of Illyrian origin.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to Venice

Venetian(n.)

early 15c., Venicien (also as an adjective), "native or inhabitant of Venice," from Medieval Latin Venetianus, from Venetia (see Venice). Also probably in part from Old French Venicien. As a kind of dress cloth, from 1710. As an adjective from 1550s. Venetian blinds, made of thin light slats suspended on strips of webbing, so called by 1791 (see blinds).

Venezuela

Spanish, diminutive of Venecia "Venice" (see Venice). Supposedly the name was given by Spanish sailors in 1499 when they saw a native village built on piles on Lake Maracaibo. Related: Venezuelan.

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    lazaretto
    diseased poor persons," 1540s, from Italian lazareto "place set aside for performance of quarantine" (especially that of Venice...The word in Italian was perhaps influenced by the name of another hospital in Venice, that associated with the church of...
    ducat
    Over the years it was a unit of currency of varying value in Holland, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Venice, etc....It remained popular as English slang for "money" or "ticket" from its prominence in "The Merchant of Venice."...
    carpaccio
    his pictures often feature an orange-red hue reminiscent of some raw meat (and were the subject of a popular exhibit in Venice...Giuseppe Cipriani, the owner of Harry's Bar [in Venice], claimed to have first served it around 1950 for a customer who demanded...
    cafe
    The beverage was introduced in Venice by 1615 and in France by 1650s by merchants and travelers who had been to Turkey and...
    terra firma
    c. 1600, "part of the Italian mainland ruled by Venice," from Modern Latin terra firma, literally "firm land," from Latin...
    gazette
    copper coin, literally "little magpie," from gazza; applied to the monthly newspaper (gazeta de la novità) published in Venice...perhaps, derived from gazzera, a magpie or chatterer; or, more probably, from a farthing coin, peculiar to the city of Venice...The first newspapers appeared at Venice about the middle of the 16th century during the war with Soliman II, in the form...A paper of public intelligence and news of divers countries, first printed at Venice, about the year 1620, and so called...
    gondola
    1540s, "long, narrow flat-bottomed boat used in Venice," from Italian (Venetian) gondola, earlier in English as goundel,...
    indict
    formerly also endict, c. 1300, enditen, inditen, "bring formal charges against (someone); accuse of a crime," from Anglo-French enditer "accuse, indict, find chargeable with a criminal offense" (late 13c.), Old French enditier, enditer "to dictate, write, compose; (legally) indic
    pivot
    "pin on which a wheel or other object turns," 1610s, from French pivot, from Old French pivot "hinge pin, pivot" (12c.), also "penis," a word of uncertain origin. Pevetsheres, evidently some kind of shears, is mentioned in a will registered in York in 1398. Figurative sense of "t
    planet
    late Old English planete, in old astronomy, "star other than a fixed star; star revolving in an orbit," from Old French planete (Modern French planète) and directly from Late Latin planeta, from Greek planētēs, from (asteres) planētai "wandering (stars)," from planasthai "to wand

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