Roy asks:

> Interesting how the 'ven' in 'venom' is tied to 'Venus', but the 'ven'
>  in 'vendor' isn't.
>
>  Or perhaps you know different, Wirt?   :-)

The root word for "vendor" isn't "venus," but "vendere" (to sell), from which
we get our word "vend". But if you're into hermeneutics (the study of the
methodological principles of interpretation, as in the Bible, or as in "whadd'he
say?"), it is very interesting to remember that the Roman god Mercury was the
god Hermes to the Greeks, and in both civilizations was the god of vendors.

Hermes delivered the messages from the gods atop Olympus to the mortals
living in the valleys below, but Hermes was also the trickster god, who rarely gave
you a straight and clean explanation, thus you had to puzzle over what he
just told you, trying to decipher what was true and what was not. Hermes, the
patron god of vendors even now, was the kind of minor god who would tell you with
an absolutely straight face that "we'll keep building them as long as people
keep buying them. We're absolutely not going to kill yours and our favorite
system," but it was up to you to decide what part of that "trusted" relationship
you really believed, thus the invention of the very necessary term
"hermeneutics."

But back on the topic of "vir" (Latin for man), the root word of "virus,"
other of our words that I didn't immediately think of yesterday that are also
derived from "vir" are "virtuous" (strong morals) and "virtuoso" (strength of
accomplishment). Both of these qualities are attributes that you only find in
men, or at least so the Romans believed. Similarly, the word "virago" (heroine)
is also derived from "vir," meaning a woman who acts in the manner of a man.
But then so is our "werewolf" also derived from the Latin "vir." The "w" arises
because of the English pronunciation and spelling of the "vir-wolf" (man-wolf)
myth as it was transmitted to us from the German "werwolf", where German
reverses the "w" and "v" sounds.

I know everyone will sleep better tonight knowing all of this.

Wirt Atmar

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