Vent No More with Ven

ven-come

Quick Summary

The Latin root word ven and its variant vent both mean “come.” These roots are the word origin of many English vocabulary words, including prevent, invent, venue, and convenient. When you invent something, for instance, you “come” upon it for the first time, whereas a venue is a place to which people “come,” often for an event.

The Latin root word ven and its variant vent both mean “come.” Let’s see how these Latin root words have “come” so fruitfully into the English language.

Soccer fans often eagerly convene at stadiums, or “come” together there. The soccer stadium is an exciting venue, or place where people “come.” This place is often in a convenient part of a city, or a mutually agreeable place to “come” together for exciting matches. Afterwards, fans who have traveled far might want to bring home a souvenir, or etymologically an item which “comes” under your memory to support it in remembering where you went.

French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese soccer fans all use the same word which means “to come:” venir! When Caesar said veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered), little did he know that his Latin language would have such a huge influence on the Romance languages!

A primary focus of most companies is revenue, or that money which “comes” back from sales of products they manufacture. If the income stream is too low, the board may have to intervene or “come” between the CEO and her company to make needed changes.

A variant of the root word ven is vent, which also means to “come.”An event is something that etymologically “comes” out, or “happens.” When you prevent something from happening, you “come” before it to stop it in its tracks. An invention is something “come” upon for the first time; that is, an inventor has a knack of inventing or “coming” upon things that no one else has thought of or found before. During an adventure, a knight “comes” upon many foes as he travels or “comes” to many places. And a convention? That’s a gathering where many people “come” together to talk about similar interests.

I hope that you have now “come” to realize how important the root word ven and its variant vent have “come” to be in the construction of the English language.

  1. convene: to ‘come’ together
  2. venue: place where people ‘come’
  3. convenient: of an agreeable place or time to ‘come’ together
  4. revenue: money which ‘comes’ back after selling products
  5. intervene: to ‘come’ between two things
  6. event: that which ‘comes’ out
  7. prevent: ‘come’ before
  8. invention: that which is ‘come’ upon for the first time
  9. inventor: one who ‘comes’ upon new things
  10. adventure: a ‘coming’ to people and places
  11. convention: a ‘coming’ together of people

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