Laverna was the
Roman goddess of thieves. Her name seems to derive from lateo, 'to lie hidden', 'lurk', with 't' an alternative for V. (This happened quite frequently in equivalent Greek and Latin words, for example Greek tillo and Latin vello, 'to pull', 'pluck'; Greek thelo and Latin volo, 'to wish', 'want'; Greek clitys and Latin clivus, 'slope'. There are even similar doublets in
English, as 'dale' and 'vale'.)
