vernix

Derived from Medieval Latin vernix (“varnish”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɜːnɪks/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɝnɪks/

vernix (uncountable)

1. (obstetrics, medicine) Vernix caseosa; a fatty deposit covering the skin of newborn babies.
   • 2004, Armin A Brott, The New Father, Mitchell Beazley, published 2011, page 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 November 7, Sam Leith, The Guardian:

     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.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯er.niːks/, [ˈu̯ɛrniːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈver.niks/, [ˈvɛrniks]

vernīx m (genitive vernīcis); third declension

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

Third-declension noun.

• vernīcium

• vernix in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• uernix in Ramminger, Johann (2015 May 22 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016