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The adjective of the planet Mars is Martian (note the s changes to a t). This is part of common knowledge, and it is in use in the Expanse novels.

The adjective of the planet Jupiter is Jovian (the exclamation "By Jove!" might be a more known example of this declination quirk). This is nowhere near as commonly known, but nonetheless it is in use in the novels.

The adjective of the planet Venus is Veneral. This is, I would think, more well-known than Jupiter, but nonetheless it is not used in the novels (in particular in the second novel, Caliban's War, where the sun's second planet is more in focus).

Does anyone know the reason that S. A. Corey did it this way?

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    I believe it's "Venereal" not "Veneral" and the reason it's not preferred is likely the reason that IRL "Venusian" has largely supplanted it; the association with STDs.
    – DavidW
    Commented Aug 13 at 18:22
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    I mean. "Veneral" is a near homonym with an already well-known word with a highly charged meaning. And it is more or less obsolete. Authors are free to resurrect any words they see fit, of course. But your other two words are a well established part of modern English, whereas the last one is just not.
    – user180810
    Commented Aug 13 at 18:22
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    I can't compare "venusian" to "venereal" because the conflict with the medical meaning, but here is a comparison of "venusian" to "venerian" and "venerean" showing how popular "venusian" has been for many years.
    – DavidW
    Commented Aug 13 at 18:38
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    “By Jove” is not a contraction of Jovian, it’s a contraction of Jehova. It’s a method of swearing without using the Lord’s name.
    – Dale M
    Commented Aug 14 at 12:18
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    @DaleM: I disagree, and so does Merriam-Webster. But you are right that Jove doesn't derive from Jovian; it's the other way round $-$ Jovian derives from Jove. In Latin, the oblique stem of Iuppiter is Iov- (both of those start with upper-case 'i').
    – TonyK
    Commented Aug 14 at 13:48

1 Answer 1

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First, I want to clarify that you're probably looking for "venerean" rather than "venereal." "Venereal" suggests partaking of the traits of Venus, like "jovial" comes from Jupiter (Jove) and "martial" comes from Mars. The equivalent adjectival forms describing the planets (and hence their demonyms) are "venerean," "jovian," and "martian" respectively.

Given that, this Google Ngram query shows that "Venusian" has been much more popular than the combination of "Venerean" and "Venerian," except briefly from about 1925-1935, for more than two centuries. As such, Corey's choice of "Venusian" is simply following common usage.

Google Ngram comparison of venusian, venerean and venerian

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    Since it is common usage, it presumably would have been the default choice in-universe too...
    – DavidW
    Commented Aug 13 at 19:41
  • You're entirely right that I chose the wrong form of the word and also spelled it wrongly. That one is on me. This data does explain the authors' choice, but I still find it curious how that one planet (and god) lost its old form and not the other two.
    – Arthur
    Commented Aug 13 at 20:47
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    @Arthur That might be a good question on the English Language and Usage Stack Exchange.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Aug 14 at 0:08
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    @Arthur I figure usually boils down to "English is like that." After all, considering traits that use gods' names as descriptors, we have mercurial, venereal, martial, jovial ...and saturnine. At some point all you can do is shrug and say "well, English, you know?"
    – DavidW
    Commented Aug 14 at 3:07
  • @DavidW Thank you for this! It appears "Venusian" trampled the competition a century ago. :)
    – Lexible
    Commented Aug 17 at 19:21

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