| veronica \veh-RAH-ni-keh\ (noun) - 1 : A cloth with a representation of Jesus' face on it (from the legend that the face of Jesus was impressed on the kerchief offered him by Saint Veronica on the road to Calvary). 2 : A maneuver in bullfighting in which the matador stands erect with both feet firmly planted, attracts the bull with his cape, held away from his body, then sweeps the cape backwards allowing the bull to pass or dragging it over the bull's head, like St. Veronica wiping the face of Christ. 3 : A wild European plant with long spikes of flowers or low-growing single flowers similar to violets, usually blue but also white and pink.
"The dance floor was filled with gallantly swaying gentlemen wafted by ladies in elegant dress passing mystically through their capeless veronicas."
Today's word comes to us from Medieval Latin, probably by smushing together vera "true" + iconica "image," the feminine of iconicus "of an image." Latin "vera" is the feminine of verus "true." This root emerged in English as "very" and as the first element in "warlock," which came down to us from warloga "oath-breaker," when "war" meant "oath" and "leogan" meant "to lie." "Icon" comes from Greek eikon "image." |
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