English

Noun

vernix ‎(uncountable)

1. (medicine) Vernix caseosa; a fatty deposit covering the skin of newborn babies.
   • 2004, Armin A Brott, The New Father, Mitchell Beazley 2011, p. 21:

     The cheesy stuff is called vernix, and it's a natural moisturizer that protects the baby's skin while she's in the womb.

   • 2009, Sam Leith, The Guardian, 7 Nov 2009:

     But when – like Troy in the end of the film – you are presented for the first time with an angry, purple, bloody, vernix-covered, ****-smeared, breathing human being, everything changes.

Latin

Alternative forms

• bernix
• veronix

Etymology

Perhaps from Byzantine Greek Βερενίκη ‎(Bereníkē), from Ancient Greek.

Noun

vernix m ‎(genitive vernicis); third declension

(Medieval Latin)

1. varnish
2. resin

Declension

Third declension.

Derived terms

• vernicium

Descendants

References

• VERNIX in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• uernix in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 22.5.2015) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016