Obs. Also 6–7 -all. [f. L. veneri-us, f. Vener-, Venus. Cf. VENEREAL a.]
1. = VENEREAL a. 1.
1531. Elyot, Gov., III. xviii. Thinking … to remoue him from the faythe, rather by veneriall motions, thanne by sharpenesse of tourmentes.
1552. Huloet, Veneriall pastime, aphrodisia.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurdity, Wks. (Grosart), I. 26. Craftie Cupid … meditates new shifts, which each amorous Courtier by his veneriall experience may coniecturallie conceiue.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 553. Those that do too much follow venerial combats haue their eyes smal and extenuated.
1636. Davenant, Platonick Lovers, III. I found him … Lesse apt for our veneriall Love than Muscovites Benighted when they travell on the Ice.
2. = VENEREAL a. 3 a.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., Ep. Ded. A iij b. I (who as yet neuer receyued one poynt of discourtesie of any veneriall Dame). Ibid., A iv b. Veneriall dames, and ruffling Nymphes.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), A Bawd, Wks. II. 93/2. Besides, I found a cursed Catalogue of these veneriall Caterpillers who were supprest with the Monasteries in England.
3. a. Beautiful or attractive like Venus.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, III. iv. 38. They described him like a martial man, when they would expresse his heat,… when a venerial woman, described him with a Mirtle garland on his head.
b. Associated with the planet Venus.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, vi. (1697), 106. The cooler the Water is when you put in the Malt, the Paler or more Venerial will the Colour of your Wort be. Ibid., 109. The predominant Quality … in Ale is Solar and Venerial, viz. Sweet and Balsamick.
4. Employed in curing venereal disease.
17[?]. M. Barrett, in Morse, Amer. Geog. (1796), I. 682. The next is the venerial root, which, under a vegetable regimen, will cure a confirmed lues.
Hence † Venerialist, a specialist in venereal diseases. Obs.
1763. A. Sutherland, Attempts Anc. Med. Doctr., I. Introd. 21. Every disease, every member of the body, has its particular professor. The city swarms with Oculists, Aurarists, Dentists, Venerialists, Nostrumites, &c.
