Venus
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love deified.
(2): ( n.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its orbit lying between that of Mercury and that of the Earth, at a mean distance from the sun of about 67,000,000 miles. Its diameter is 7,700 miles, and its sidereal period 224.7 days. As the morning star, it was called by the ancients Lucifer; as the evening star, Hesperus.
(3): ( n.) The metal copper; - probably so designated from the ancient use of the metal in making mirrors, a mirror being still the astronomical symbol of the planet Venus.
(4): ( n.) Any one of numerous species of marine bivalve shells of the genus Venus or family Veneridae. Many of these shells are large, and ornamented with beautiful frills; others are smooth, glossy, and handsomely colored. Some of the larger species, as the round clam, or quahog, are valued for food.
King James Dictionary [2]
VE'NUS, n. L. ventus, venenum Eng. venom to poison, to fret or irritate. These affinities lead to the true origin of these words. The primary sense of the root is to shoot or rush, as light or wind. From light is derived the sense of white, fair, Venus, or it is from opening, parting and from rushing, moving, comes wind, and the sense of raging, fury, whence L. venenum, poison, that which frets or causes to rage. These words all coincide with L. venio, which signifies to rush, to fall, to happen venor, to hunt, &c. The Greeks had the same idea of the goddess of love, viz. that her name signified fairness, whiteness, and hence the fable that she sprung from froth, whence her Green name.
1. In mythology, the goddess of beauty and love that is, beauty or love deified just as the Gaelic and Irish diana, swiftness, impetuosity, is denominated the goddess of hunting. 2. In astronomy, one of the inferior planets, whose orbit is between the earth and Mercury a star of brilliant splendor. 3. In the old chimistry, a name given to copper.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [3]
The Roman goddess of love, of wedded love, and of beauty (originally of the spring), and at length identified with the Greek Aphrodité ( q. v .); she was regarded as the tutelary goddess of Rome, and had a temple to her honour in the Forum.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Venus'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/v/venus.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
