Also 6 ventre. [a. AF. ventre, venter, or L. venter (whence It., Fr., Prov., and Pg. ventre, Sp. vientre), paunch, womb, etc. In anatomical use the L. pl. ventrēs is occas. employed.]
I. 1. One or other of two or more wives who are (successively or otherwise) sources of offspring to the same person. Usually in phrases with by. Orig. (and in later use chiefly) Law (after AF. per un, per autre, venter).
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 2 b. Yf man haue issue .ii. sonnes by .ii. ventres. Ibid., 157 b. Yf a tenaunt in tayle haue issue .ii. daughters by dyuers ventres.
1628. Coke, On Litt., I. i. § 7. If a man hath issue a sonne and a daughter by one venter, and a son by another venter.
1650. Weldon, Crt. Jas. I., 89. Mr George Villers a younger sonne by a second Venter.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 60. To his Sons by another Venter … he gave Money-portions.
1677. Sandford, Geneal. Hist. Kings Eng., 101. Sons of his said Father by the first Venter.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 35. A man dying left Issue by two several Venters.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IV. xxix. His sister by the father’s side (for she was born of the former venter).
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 227. If the father has two sons … by different venters or wives.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), VI. 463. A. having two sons, B. and C., by several venters.
fig. 1651. Cleveland, Poems, 3. Her Speech … is a Kiss oth’ second Venter. Ibid. (c. 1651), London Lady, 24. The small Drink Country Squires of the first venter.
1687. R. L’Estrange, Ans. to Dissenter, 47. The Author Writes himself a Church-of England-Man, but it must be by a Second Venter then; for he gives his Orthodox Mother most Bloudy hard Words.
† b. Irregularly used of a woman’s first or second marriage. Obs.
1707. Cibber, Double Gallant, IV. An unlick’d thing, she call’d Son—I suppose by her first Venter.
1765. Foote, Commissary, I. (1782), 16. Mrs. Lov. Because … the more children I have by the second venter, the greater [etc.].
2. The womb as the source of one’s birth or origin; hence transf., a mother in relation to her children: a. In the phrase of one (or the same) venter. (After AF. de mesme le venter.) ? Obs.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1656), 113. Mnesiptolema … was married unto her half brother Archeptolis, for they were not both of one venter.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 19. Of Isaac by Rebekah, twins were born,… Of one venter, though not … of one minde or disposition.
1655. Stanley, Hist. Philos., I. 47. He allowed brothers and sisters by the same father to marry, and prohibited only brothers and sisters of the same venter.
[1865. F. M. Nichols, Britton, II. 319. The sister of the same venter as the purchasor shall be the nearest heir.]
fig. 1669. Truth Triumphant (title-p.), That Quaking is the Off-Spring of Popery; at the least, the Papist and Quaker are both of one Venter.
b. In phrases with by (passing into sense 1).
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XXXI. xxvi. I am your fathers sonne, not by one venter.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XIII. (1626), 258. Laertes was my Sire … By the venter I From Hermes spring.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 266 (1810), 275. My Sister, by one Venter.
1756. Nugent, Montesquieu’s Spirit Laws, I. v. 63. It was not permitted to marry a sister by the same venter.
† c. transf. (See quot.) Obs.–1
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 138. Those egges are most wholesome that are most temperate, they being like their venters.
3. a. The womb of a woman. rare.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann. (1658), 342. Another son of Lysimachus, but by the Venter of Odryssias, another wife of his.
1767. trans. Voltaire’s Ignorant Philosopher, 184. The Brother-Cordeliers averred that Mary had not sinned in her mother’s venter.
† b. A single occasion of child-bearing. Obs.–1
1657. Penit. Conf., vii. 127. As to bring forth at one venter twins.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Venter is also used for the Children whereof a Woman is deliver’d at one pregnancy. Ibid. Thus, two Twins are said to be of the same Venter.
II. 4. In man, quadrupeds, etc.: One or other of the three chief cavities containing viscera, consisting of the abdomen, thorax and head. Usu. in pl. or with qualifying term. ? Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, VII. i. (1631), 432. It is now time wee should ascend into the third venter, the seate and very residence of the Soule.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 299. The venters are the inferiour, or abdomen; the midle, or thorax; or the supreame, which is the head.
1682. Gibson, Anat., 2. The three venters are the cavities of the abdomen or Belly, the Chest, and Head.
1720. Phil. Trans., XXXI. 84. The Liver, Spleen and other parts of the lower Venter.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 218. Deep Abscesses, in the Neighbourhood of one of the three Venters.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 277/1. The middle venter, or cavity of the breast.
† b. spec. The chest or thorax. Obs.–1
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. Introd. 85. The middle Venter or Belly termed Thorax the Chest, and by some absolutely Venter.
5. † a. One of the four stomachs in ruminants.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 83. In the second venter of a cow there is a round black Tophus found.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 45. They [elephants] have short joynts, 4 venters; a liver four times as bigge as an oxes.
1676. Grew, Musæum, Anat. Stomach & Guts, iv. 17. The Stomachs or Venters in a Sheep are Four.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Venter,… one of the four Stomachs of Beasts that chew the Cud.
transf. 1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Isagoge b 8. Neere to the mouth is a venter, like the craw of birds.
b. Anat. The abdomen, the belly.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Venter, the Belly or Paunch.
1738. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Jonah is said … to have been three days in the whale’s venter, or belly.
1847–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., IV. I. 639/2. Those very structures which in the saurian venter opposite its lumbar spine … appear as the ventral ribs. Ibid., 654. The reptilian venter and loins.
1859. in Mayne, Expos. Lex., s.v.
c. That part in lower forms of animal life more or less corresponding in function or position to the belly of man or mammals. (Sometimes distinguished from abdomen: see quots.)
c. 1790. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VI. 678/1. Venter, the Belly, is the inferior part [of the insect].
1842. Brande, Dict. Sci., etc., 1288. Venter, in Entomology, signifies the lower part of the abdomen.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 306. Venter … of a paler tint than the back.
1852. Dana, Crust., I. 629. The animal frequently throws its abdomen forward along its venter towards its head.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 17. Abdomen … has been unnecessarily divided into epigastrium, or ‘pit of the stomach,’ and venter, or ‘lower belly’; but these terms are rarely used.
6. Anat. † a. (See quot. 1728.) Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 759. [This muscle] was called Digastricus because it hath two Venters or Bellies.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Muscle, The Venter or Belly is the body of the Muscle, being a thick, fleshy part, into which are inserted Arteries and Nerves. Ibid., s.v., Venter, or Belly of a Muscle [etc.]. [Hence in later Dicts.]
b. The belly or hollowed surface of a bone.
1851. Ramsbotham, Obstetric Med. & Surgery, 2. The chief extent of the inner surface [of the hip bone] is concave and smooth, and is called the venter.
a. 1883. C. H. Fagge, Princ. & Pract. Med. (1886), I. 89. A large bossy prominence projecting from both the dorsum and the venter.
1887. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., Subscapular muscle,… a muscle arising partly by muscular … fibres from the venter of the scapula.
† 7. transf. The space included within the outline of the square Hebrew characters. Obs.–1
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 467. The Powers of the Hebrew Alphabet are distinguished by Points that letters have either in their venter, or over their body.
