Other forms: varnishes
Varnish is a clear coat that protects wood and shows the grain. Apply varnish, three coats of varnish, strip the varnish.
It sits on the surface as a film, which is what makes it hard-wearing and what makes it chip; oil soaks in instead and wears rather than chipping. Each coat must be rubbed down before the next. Figuratively a varnish is a thin covering over the truth.
1nounvarnishA clear coat that protects wood and shows the grain.
“He gave the wooden floor two coats of varnish to make it shine.”
varnish is a coating.
Medieval Latin veronix comes through Old French, apparently from a Greek name connected with a resin.
Medieval Greek
Βερενίκη — Berenice
Medieval Latin
vernix, veronix
Old French
vernis
Middle English
vernisch
English, today
varnish
From Middle English vernisch, vernish, from Old French vernis, from Medieval Latin vernix, veronix, from Medieval Greek Βερενίκη (“Berenice”), a town in Cyrenaica, now called Benghazi.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA