Vela

The word Vela comes from the Indo-European root *weg-¹ 'To weave a web'. Suffixed form *weg-slo-; veil, Vela (sails, plural of velum), velarium, velum (sail), vexilum (a flag, banner, or ensign. The weblike part of a feather; the vane), voile (a fabric of plain weave used especially for making dresses and curtains), reveal¹, revelation, (these words from Latin velum, 'a sail, curtain, veil'). [Pokorny weg- 1117. Watkins]

Pokorny has under *weg-¹ "Related to *wokso-".*wokso- 'Wax'. Derivative: wax¹ (wax in the ears, beeswax)". [Pokorny wokso- 1180. Watkins]

To reveal something is etymologically to 'remove a veil' from it.

The Latin word for a flag was vexillum, 'a military ensign or standard', vexilla 'banner', from the diminutive of velum, a covering, in English the word vexillum is the weblike part of a feather; the vane, a vexillary, was a standard-bearer, or ensign, vexillology is the study of flags.

“A banner (vexillum) is also a battle-sign, having its name drawn from the diminutive of 'sail' (velum), as if it were velxillum.” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.361.]

The word sail (vela) and ensign (vexilum) are from the same root *weg-¹. In ancient times the sail might have also been a flag:

"The sail had also to serve for an ensign (Ezekiel 27:7 )" [1].

"The flag proper seems not to have been used in ancient navigation; its purpose was served by the sail, as for example at the battle of Actium the ship of Antony was distinguished by its purple sail." [2]

An ensign is a national flag displayed on ships and aircraft, often with the special insignia to identify where it belongs. [The German word segel, sail, resembles the German word siegel, seal, from Latin sigillum, a seal].

The word sign derives from the Indo-European root *sekw-¹ 'To follow'. Derivatives: sect, segue, sequel, sequence, sue, suit, suite, suitor, consequent, ensue, execute, executive, obsequious, persecute, prosecute, pursue, subsequent, (these words from Latin sequi, to follow), consecutive, consequence, sequal, set (a group of things), suit, sequester, sequestrum, second¹ (a moment in time), second² (after the first), secundines (afterbirth, from Latin secundus), scarlet, scarlatina, seal¹ (Latin sigillum, a signet or stamp), sigil (seal or a signet), sign, assign, consign, designate, insignia, resign, (these words from Latin signum, identifying mark, sign < 'standard that one follows'), design, ensign, signal, signature, signet, significant, sociable, social, society, socio-, associate, consociate, dissociate, (these words from Latin socius, ally, companion < 'follower'). Suez Canal. [Pokorny 1. seku- 896. Watkins] A gigantic Californian sequoia, wide enough to drive a car through, has 4000 rings.

Sealing wax was used to seal letters, and to create a hermetic seal on containers, sometimes using a signet ring. The word wax¹, substance made by bees, wax seals, etc., is from the Indo-European *weg-¹, source also of English veil and vela. The 'Doctrine of Signatures' is the idea that God has marked everything he created with a sign (signature). Signs reveal things.

“Military standards (signum) are so called because an army receives from them its signal for retreat both in the course of fighting and in the case of victory, for an army is ordered either by the sound of a trumpet or by a signal flag. The major standards of the legions are eagles, dragons, and orbs” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.361.]

In anatomy the velum is the soft palate, the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth, it guards the opening to the throat, windpipe, and lungs, and is responsible for sealing off the nasal passages during the act of swallowing. Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant [3].

The Latin word for a constellation was signum [the word star might relate to the adjacent constellation Puppis, the Stern]:

"Next, those constellations that are called signs (signum) by the pagans, in which the image of living beings is formed from stars, such as Arctos, Aries, Taurus, Libra and others of this type. In their study of the constellations these people, prompted by superstitious folly, imposed the shape of a body on the configuration of stars, making their appearance and names conform, through certain characteristics, to those of their gods'" [p.106.] "Constellations (sidus) are so named because sailors 'take bearings on' (considerare) them when they set their course, lest they be led elsewhere by deceptive waves and winds" [P.104] [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century A.D.]

"... who seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south”(Job 9:1 -10 )

'To take the veil' can mean to become a nun, to become sequestered behind a veil, sectioned off from the rest of society.

“Isis first invented sails, for while seeking her son Harpocrates, she sailed on a ship” –Hyginus Fabulae 277

Isis is the chief Egyptian goddess. The ancient writer Proclus speaks of a statue which carried her name and the inscription which translates: 'I am that which is, has been, and shall be. My veil no-one has lifted. The fruit I bore was the sun'. This gives rise to the saying: 'To lift the veil of Isis', ie. to uncover a great secret. [4]

"Apocalypsis is translated from Greek into Latin as 'revelation' (revelatio), and a revelation means a manifestation of things that were hidden, as John himself says (Apoc. 1:1): "The Revelation (Apocalypsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to make known to his servants" [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.138.]

Varro says that a ferry-raft was called a velabrum. "Velabrum is from vehere ‘to convey'" [Varro: On The Latin Language, 1st century AD, p.41]. "In the Middle Ages, the name was corrupted into Velum Aureum" [5]. "The Latin word for ferrying being velatura. Others derive the name from velum, a sail; because the exhibitors of public shows used to hang the road that leads from the forum to the Circus Maximus with sails" [Plutarch, Life of Romulus]. Varro says advectus is ‘transport by water’ and explains why he see a connection between velabrum and advectus (which is related to vehere): "I am decidedly of the opinion, that it is from advectus ‘transport by water’; for of old the hill was cut off from everything else by swampy pools and streams. Therefore they advehebantur ‘were conveyed’ thither by rafts ; and traces of this survive, in that the way by which they were then transported is now called Velabrum ‘ferry,' and the place from which they landed at the bottom of New Street is a chapel of the Velabra". Vehere translates our word vehicle and is from the Indo-European root *wegh- 'To go, transport in a vehicle'. Derivatives: wee, weight, way, always, away, wayfarer, Norwegian, thalweg, wain, wagon, ochlocracy (government by the masses; mob rule), ochlophobia (an abnormal fear of crowds, from Greek okhlos, populace, mob < 'moving mass'), vogue (the prevailing fashion, from Old French, probably from voguer, to sail, row), earwig, wiggle, vector, vehement, vehicle, advection, convection, evection, invective, inveigh, (these words from Latin vehere, past participle vectus, to carry), via, voyage, convey, convoy, deviate, devious, envoi or envoy¹, invoice, obviate, obvious, pervious, previous, trivia, viaduct, (these words from Latin via, way), vex (from Latin vexare, to agitate < 'to set in motion'), convex (from Latin convexus, 'carried or drawn together - to a point)'. [Pokorny wegh- 1118. Watkins]

The English word flag¹ an ensign, is "of uncertain origin", thought to be related to flag³ (from Old Norse flögra, to flap about), to droop, or weary, fag and fagged, 'to exhaust; weary'. Sails are used to propel ships. "I’ve lost the wind in my sails" means I am flagging.

Latin has a word for whip flagellum from flagrum [not a recognized cognate of flag¹] cognate with Old Norse blak, 'a blow' blaka, blakra, 'to strike, beat the wings, flutter'.

“lashes (flagrum) and floggings and scourges (flagellum), because they resound on the body with a whistling (flatus) and a crack. There is flogging (plaga), as if the term were flaga: but plaga and flagrum are primary in form, and flagellum is made by forming the diminutive” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.124.]

Latin flagrum comes from the indo-European root *plák-¹  Also plak-. 'To be flat'. Derivatives: floe (an ice floe), fluke¹ (flatworm, flatfish), flake (snowflake), flag⁴ (AHD says a flagstone, Encarta says the genus of iris plant), flaw¹ (layer of stone), Possibly suffixed form *plak-e-, to be calm as of the flat sea; placebo (a substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well, the Latin word placebo means "I shall please"), placid, plea, plead, pleasant, please, complacent, (these words from Latin placare, to please, be agreeable), pleasure, supplicate, supple, suppliant (to beg humbly), placable, placate, planchet (a flat disk of metal ready for stamping as a coin), plank (from Latin plancus, flat, flat-footed 'something extended'), plagiary, plagiarism (these words from plagium, kidnapping, the Latin word plaga denoted a hunting net or snare for capturing game, also curtain, region), plagio- (slanting, inclining), playa (a nearly level area at the bottom of an undrained desert basin, sometimes temporarily covered with water), (these words from from Greek plagos, side), placenta, placoid (platelike, as the hard toothlike scales of sharks, skates, and rays), placoderm (extinct fishes characterized by bony plates of armor covering the head and flanks, hinged jaws, and paired fins, from Greek plax, flat, flat land, surface, plate), pelagic (living in open oceans or seas), archipelago (a group or chain of islands), (these words from Greek pelagos, sea. [Pokorny 1. pla-k- 831. Watkins]

The placenta is a vascular organ that develops inside the uterus and envelops the fetus in mammals. It is expelled after birth. The word secundines means afterbirth, from Latin secundus from IE *sekw-¹ 'To follow' (see above). Placenta literally 'flat cake' is a place for the fetus. The counterpart to the placenta in eggs is the very thin membrane we see on a boiled egg. The placenta of the chick is developed from this thin 'skin' or membrane. During the three weeks of incubation, the chick breaths through this 'skin'.

Plataia:

"Hera, they say, was for some reason or other angry with Zeus, and had retreated to Euboia. Zeus, failing to make her change her mind, visited Kithairon ... he ordered Zeus to make an image of wood, and to carry it, wrapped up, in a bullock wagon, and to say that he was celebrating his marriage to Plataia, the daughter of Asopos. So Zeus followed the advise of Kithairon. Hera heard the news, and at once appeared on the scene. But when she came near the wagon and tore away the dress (veil) from the image, she was pleased at the deceit (revelation), on finding it a wooden image and not a bride, and was reconciled to Zeus" [Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.3.1 Theoi Project]

“Curtains (velum) are so named because they conceal (velare) the interior of a home when they are drawn shut” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.388.]

© Anne Wright 2008.