Other forms: venoms
Venom is the poison a snake, spider or scorpion injects with a bite or a sting. Snake venom, a venom gland, milked for venom.
The distinction from poison is precise and worth knowing: venom is injected, poison is swallowed or absorbed. That is why a snake is venomous and a mushroom is poisonous. Antivenom is made by injecting small doses into horses or sheep and harvesting the antibodies. Figuratively, venom is bitter hatred in what somebody says: he said it with real venom. Note venomous, which carries both senses.
1nounvenomThe poison a snake or scorpion injects.
“The venom acts on the nervous system within minutes.”
2nounbitterBitter hatred in what somebody says.
“There was real venom in the last paragraph.”
venom is an injected poison, or bitterness.
Latin venenum meant a drug, a charm or a poison, and it comes from a root meaning to love — the same root as Venus. Love potions and poisons were one category of thing, which is how the word ended up where it did.
Proto-Indo-European
*wenh₁- — to love
la-cla
venēnum — drug; poison; a charm
la-eme
venīnum
Vulgar Latin
*venīmen
Old French
venim
Middle English
venym
English, today
venom
From Middle English venym, from Old French venim, from Vulgar Latin venīmen, from la-eme venīnum, from la-cla venēnum (“drug; poison; a charm”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European wenh₁- (“to love”). a doublet of venin and venene.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA