vernix

From Medieval Latin vernix (“varnish”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvəːnɪks/

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, shit-smeared, breathing human being, everything changes.

• bernīx, veronīx

Perhaps from Byzantine Greek Βερενίκη (Bereníkē), from Ancient Greek. Also perhaps from Sanskrit वर्ण (varṇa, “color”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈwer.niːks/, [ˈwɛr.niːks]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈver.niks/

vernīx m (genitive vernīcis); third declension

1. (Medieval Latin) varnish
2. (Medieval Latin) resin

Third declension.

• vernīcium

• 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