Venice

Origin

From Middle English Venyse, from Old French Venise or Old Italian, from Medieval Latin Venetia, from Latin Venetī + -ia (suffix forming place names), a local tribe in antiquity whose own little-attested language is now known as Venetic. Initial scholarly agreement that they were Illyrian was based on arguments since refuted. They worshipped Belenus and were possibly Celtic or heavily influenced by Celtic culture, despite repeatedly supporting the Romans against the Gauls. Compare the identical ethnonym Venetī used for Celts of Armorica (ancient Britanny) from Gaulish Uenetoi (“friendly ones, kinsmen”), from Proto-Celtic *wenet, a modified form of *wenyā (“kindred”). Widely but mistakenly derived by the ancient Greeks and Romans from the Eneti of Pamphylia, supposed to have fled to the Adriatic and become the Veneti after supporting the losing side of the Trojan War. As American places, named after the Italian city. Doublet of Venetia and Venezia.