Venerable means deserving respect for age, wisdom or character. A venerable institution, the venerable professor, venerable old trees.
It is a compliment about age above all, and there is a joke in every use of it about an institution that has stopped changing. In the Catholic church it is a formal title, the first step on the road to sainthood.
1adjectivevenerableDeserving respect for age, wisdom or character.
“The venerable old professor had taught at the university for fifty years.”
venerable is a quality.
Latin venerabilis comes from venerari, to worship or revere.
Latin
venerabilis
Middle French
vénérable
English, today
venerable
From Middle French vénérable, from Old French -, from Latin venerabilis.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA