veni-

Veni- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “vein.” A vein, in contrast to an artery, is one of the systems of branching vessels or tubes conveying blood from various parts of the body to the heart.

Veni- is occasionally used in medical terms, especially in anatomy and pathology.

Veni- comes from the Latin vēna, meaning “blood vessel, vein.” The Latin word vēna is also ultimately the source of such vein-based words as venous. 

Veni– is a variant of veno-.

Want to know more? Read our Words That Use veno- article. Also see our Words That Use ven- and Words That Use vene- for even more forms.

OK, if you’re squeamish, you’ve been warned!

An example of a word you may have encountered that features veni- is venipuncture (also called venepuncture), the piercing of a vein for surgical or therapeutic purposes as well as to collect blood specimens for analysis.

The first part of the word, veni- refers to “vein,” as we’ve seen. The second part of the word, –puncture, ultimately comes from a Latin word for “a pricking.” That means venipuncture breaks down to “a pricking of the vein.”

What are some other forms that veni- may be commonly confused with?

• vivi-
• vini-

Many other words begin with the letters veni-, from venial to Venice, but do not use veni- as a combining form to mean “vein.”

Nor does veni have anything to do with the Latin phrase Veni, vidi, vici! This oft-quoted saying, legendarily declared by Julius Caesar, means “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

The word section ultimately comes from a Latin word meaning “a cutting.” With the meaning of veni- and its variants in mind, what is a venisection?