venue
Pluralvenues
- 1
- 2The place where something happens or is carried out.
The committee finally announced the venue for next year's conference.
A quiet café served as the venue for their first business meeting.
Similarlocation, place, site, setting, scene
Note
Once loosened from buildings, the word covers any setting where something is done, including an online forum. In this use it usually comes with a judgment: something is the appropriate or the wrong venue for a discussion. The pattern is an evaluating adjective, venue, then for plus the activity. It is a way of saying a topic belongs somewhere else without calling it unwelcome.
- 3In sports, the stadium or comparable building in which a particular competition is held.
The Olympic committee inspected each venue before the games began.
Several venues were upgraded to meet international competition standards.
Similarstadium, arena, facility, ground
Note
Sports reporting stretches the word beyond the stadium. In Jeremy Wilson's match report of November 2011 on England Under 21 against Iceland, it is Colchester, a whole garrison town, that is "the venue for last night's game." The usual construction is be the venue for a game or match, and the subject can be a ground, a city or a country.
- 4In law, the county or district where an alleged act took place, where a case is tried, or from which the jury is drawn.
Defense counsel requested a change of venue, citing heavy pretrial publicity.
The court ruled that the proper venue was the county where the contract was signed.
Note
The law's use keeps closest to the word's origin: Middle English venu, from Old French venue, the past participle of venir, "to come." William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) requires jurors to be "of the same venue where the demand is made," so the jury comes from the neighborhood itself. Lawyers still ask for a change of venue when a trial must move elsewhere.
Less common meaning
- 5A bout, a hit, or a turn, especially a single exchange of blows in fencing or combat.
The master called the venue good and bade the pupils ready themselves again.
She scored three venues before her opponent so much as touched her.
Note
An obsolete meaning that keeps the word's original motion. Old French venue was the past participle of venir, "to come," so a venue was first a coming-on: a bout, a hit landed, a turn taken. It also appears spelled venew, and veny is a doublet of the same word. In an older text it names a stroke or turn, not the place where something happens.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English venu, from Old French venue, the feminine singular past participle of the verb venir ('to come'). It is a doublet of veny.