Etymology

veil

V4E1I1L1

Today it means: Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material. Full definition →

Middle English veil ← Old Northern French veil ← Latin vēlum
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromvēlum“cloth, covering”
  2. Old Northern French · derived fromveil“sail, veil, shroud”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromveil
  4. English todayveil

From Middle English veil, veyl, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French veil (“sail, veil, shroud”) (Francien Old French voil, French voile), Latin vēlum (“cloth, covering”). Displaced Middle English scleire, scleyre, sleyre, slyre (“veil”) (compare German Schleier). Doublet of velum and voile.

Words from the same roots

Latinvēlum all →

unveilvelumveliferveliferousvelo-

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.