veretrum

Ostensibly from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to watch, cover; to heed, notice”), equal to vereor (“to show respect, fear”) +‎ -trum (“instrumental suffix”); however De Vaan (2008) is sceptical about this.

verētrum n (genitive verētrī); second declension

1. the external genitals (male or female), penis, vulva; the clitoris

   Synonyms: verenda, pudenda, genitālia, partēs, membra, nātūra

Although several sources (Isidore, De Vaan) cite this word as referring specifically to the male genitals, the 4-5th century physician Caelius Aurelianus uses it to refer to the female reproductive organ as a whole.[1] This restriction would also make redundant the phrase virīle verētrum (in Varro).

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “vereor”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 665

• “uerētrum” on page 2244 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• “veretrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “veretrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• veretrum 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)
• veretrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.