Venery

The word venery is typically considered to have two, separate definitions, the sexually related one and alternatively the original definition, the art or act of hunting animals. Yet, perhaps these two terms are not so unrelated at all. Just as a hunter stalks their animal prey, a person seeking sexual gratification may pursue a sexually attractive individual. The feelings of satisfaction that come when a person achieves the sexual gratification they’re seeking may also be similar to those emotions experienced by a hunter who overcomes prey.

We can only guess whether the sexual term venery, which originated around the turn of the 16th century, may have been influenced by the original definition, which came about in the late 13th and early 14th century. The use of the term in bawdy early literature, like “Canterbury Tales,” which was full of double entrendre, may lead credence to this theory. While it might seem that Geoffrey Chaucer’s monk was speaking of a love of hunting when he said he loved venery, the alternative meaning would have injected some humor into this work.