a. [ad. L. vēnātic-us, f. vēnārī to hunt. So obs. F. venatique.] Of or pertaining to, employed in, devoted to, hunting.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Venatick, belonging to hunting or chasing.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, I. 244. The Hassagaye the Hottentots look upon as the most notable martial and venatick weapon they have.
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XL. 3. [Stories of hunting] written with ten times the … vigour, and picturesqueness, either venatic or literary.
1865. Daily Tel., 4 March. Why are not other nations which have passed through the same venatic period as deeply imbued with the spirit of sport?
1889. Baden-Powell, Pigsticking, 19. I adore, with a sort of venatic worship, both a fox and a hound.
So Venatical a. Hence Venatically adv.
a. 1666. Howell, Lett. (1678), IV. 4. Ther be three [places] for Venery or Venatical plesure in England, viz. a Forrest, a Chase and a Park.
1887. Field, 26 Feb., 267/1. I do not know whether that vernal saint, Valentine, was venatically-minded. Ibid. (1893), 11 March, 345/1. Venatically workmanlike.
