veterinus

Probably from vetus (“old”) +‎ -īnus, formed at a time when vetus was still a substantive meaning year (compare Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”)). De Vaan invokes Adams's observation that veterīnus refers to horses in particular and were thus seen as "the old stock", due to horses living longer than other domesticated cattle-type animals.^[1] Morphologically less likely, but semantically better is a connexion to vehō (“I transport”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /u̯e.teˈriː.nus/, [u̯ɛt̪ɛˈriːnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ve.teˈri.nus/, [vet̪eˈriːnus]

veterīnus (feminine veterīna, neuter veterīnum); first/second-declension adjective

1. related to carrying or drawing burdens
2. related to beasts of burden

• Can be substantivized as veterīnum (sc. animal) or veterīna (sc. bēstia). Synonymous is jūmentum.

First/second-declension adjective.

• veterinus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• veterinus in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung
• “veterinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press