vervex

• berbēx
• verbēx

Uncertain.

• Traditionally connected to Proto-Indo-European *wr̥h₁ḗn (“lamb”, acc. *wr̥h₁énm̥, gen. *wr̥h₁nós), but with unusual suffixation *-w-ēk- (for -ēx, compare -ex with a short vowel found in some other names of plants and animals), which along with other problems makes this derivation difficult to motivate.^[1] Possibly borrowed from another Indo-European language, which could also explain the alternation ⟨v ~ b⟩. Cognates would include Sanskrit उरण (úraṇa), Old Armenian գառն (gaṙn) and Ancient Greek ἀρήν (arḗn, “lamb”).
• For an alternative, de Vaan suggests Proto-Indo-European *wérwos (“wool”, s-stem), whence Ancient Greek εἶρος (eîros, “wool; cottonweed; a type of fever”), which may be related to the above, or may be from a root *wer(H)- (“to spin”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwɛr.weːks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvɛr.veks]

vervēx m (genitive vervēcis); third declension

1. wether (castrated ram)
2. (derogatory) blockhead, dolt

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:homo stultus

Third-declension noun.

• vervēceus
• vervēcīnus
• vervēlla

• “vervex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vervex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• vervex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.