Other forms: veils
A veil is thin fabric worn over the face, as brides do. Lift the veil, a bridal veil, draw a veil over it.
The bridal one is the oldest piece of the whole ceremony, older than the white dress by centuries. To draw a veil over something means to stop discussing it politely. In religion, taking the veil means becoming a nun. The Latin velum means a cloth or sail.
1nounveilThin fabric worn over the face.
“The bride lifted her veil, and the groom kissed her.”
veil is a covering.
Old French veil comes from Latin velum, a cloth, covering or sail. Reveal is the same root, to draw back the cloth.
Proto-Indo-European
*weg-
Latin
vēlum — cloth, covering
fro-nor
veil — sail, veil, shroud
Middle English
veil
English, today
veil
Built from
From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman - and fro-nor veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). a doublet of velum and voile.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA