Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - venturi

 biographical name Robert Charles 1925- American architect VENTURI  noun  Etymology: G. B. Venturi died 1822 Italian physicist  Date: 1887 a short tube with a tapering construction in the middle that causes an increase in the velocity of flow of a fluid and a corresponding decrease in fluid pressure and that is used especially in measuring fluid flow or for creating a suction (as for driving aircraft instruments or drawing fuel into the flow stream of a carburetor)