From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Very \Ver"y\, adjective [Compar. {Verier}; superl. {Veriest}.] [OE. verai, verray, OF. verai, vrai, F. vrai, (assumed) LL. veracus, for L. verax true, veracious, fr. verus true; akin to OHG. & OS. w[=a]r, G. wahr, D. waar; perhaps originally, that is or exists, and akin to E. was. Cf. {Aver}, verb (used with an object), {Veracious}, {Verdict}, {Verity}.] True; real; actual; veritable.
Whether thou be my very son Esau or not. --Gen. xxvii. 21.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. --Prov. xvii. 9.
The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness. --Milton.
I looked on the consideration of public service or public ornament to be real and very justice. --Burke.
Note: Very is sometimes used to make the word with which it is connected emphatic, and may then be paraphrased by same, self-same, itself, and the like. ''The very hand, the very words.'' --Shak. ''The very rats instinctively have quit it.'' --Shak. ''Yea, there where very desolation dwells.'' --Milton. Very is used occasionally in the comparative degree, and more frequently in the superlative. ''Was not my lord the verier wag of the two?'' --Shak. ''The veriest hermit in the nation.'' --Pope. ''He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood.'' --Hawthorne.
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