Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VE'NUS, n. [L.; W. Gwener, from gwen, white, fair, the feminine of gwyn, white, fair, that affords happiness; also gwyn, rage, violent impulse of the mind, lust, smart; gwynàu, to whiten; gwynt, wind, L. ventus; gwynawg, full of rage; gwent, an open country; gwenu, to smile; gwenwyn, poison, L. venenum, Eng. venom; gwenwynaw, to poison, to fret or irritate. These affinities lead to the true origin of these words. The primary sense of the root is to shoot or rush, as light or wind. From light is derived the sense of white, fair, Venus, or it is from opening, parting; and from rushing, moving, comes wind, and the sense of raging, fury, whence L. venenum, poison, that which frets or causes to rage. These words all coincide with L. venio, which signifies to rush, to fall, to happen; venor, to hunt, &c. The Greeks had the same idea of the goddess of love, viz. that her name signified fairness, whiteness, and hence the fable that she sprung from froth, whence her Greek name Αφροδιτη, from αφρος, froth. But Venus may be from lust or raging.]

1. In mythology, the goddess of beauty and love; that is, beauty or love deified; just as the Gaelic and Irish diana, swiftness, impetuosity, is denominated the goddess of hunting.
2. In astronomy, one of the inferior planets, whose orbit is between the earth and Mercury; a star of brilliant splendor.
3. In the old chimistry, a name given to copper.