No we don't. You appear to be confusing "veneration" with "reverence".
Veneration: The admiration of, and prayer to the Saints, which is given to them by men because of their great sanctity, their supernatural excellence as the friends and familiars of God (Cf. Dulia) - "The Concise Catholic Dictionary", Imprimatur Moses E. Kiley, Archbishop of Milwaukee, Oct. 16, 1943.
Reverence: The virtue that inclines a person to show honor and respect for persons who possess some dignity. There are four forms of reverence, corresponding to four forms of dignity: 1. familial reverence toward one's parents or those who take the place of parents; 2. civil reverence toward persons holding civil authority; 3. ecclesiastical reverence toward the Pope, bishops, priests, and others in the service of the Church; 4. religious reverence toward any person, place, or object related to God.
Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary
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(Greek doulia; Latin servitus), a theological term signifying the honour paid to the saints, while latria means worship given to God alone, and hyperdulia the veneration offered to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Augustine (City of God X.2) distinguishes two kinds of servitus: "one which is due to men . . . which in Greek is called dulia; the other, latria, which is the service pertaining to the worship of God". St. Thomas (II-II:103:3) bases the distinction on the difference between God's supreme dominion and that which one man may exercise over another. Catholic theologians insist that the difference is one of kind and not merely of degree; dulia and latria being as far apart as are the creature and the Creator. Leibniz, though a Protestant, recognizes the "discrimen infinitum atque immensum between the honour which is due to God and that which is shown to the saints, the one being called by theologians, after Augustine's example, latria, the other dulia"; and he further declares that this difference should "not only be inculcated in the minds of hearers and learners, but should also be manifested as far as possible by outward signs" (Syst. theol., p. 184). A further distinction is made between dulia in the absolute sense, the honour paid to persons, and dulia in the relative sense, the honour paid to inanimate objects, such as images and relics. With regard to the saints, dulia includes veneration and invocation; the former being the honour paid directly to them, the latter having primarily in view the petitioner's advantage. More detailed explanation of dulia and the reasons for which it is shown to persons or things will be found in the articles IMAGES, RELICS, SAINTS. See also ADORATION and WORSHIP.
Merriam-Webster puts it this way:
Venerate:
1: to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference
2: to honor (as an icon or a relic) with a ritual act of devotion Mother Teresa was venerated for her work with the poor, even before she died (first sense); after she died and was named a "Blessed" she as venerated in the second sense, e.g. by ritual act.
In common parlance, we can be said to "venerate" loyalty, or courage, or literature. Philologically, "to venerate" derives from the Latin verb, venerare, meaning to regard with reverence and respect.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) decreed that iconoclasm, i.e. forbidding icons and their veneration, is a heresy that amounts to a denial of the incarnation of Jesus.
There was certainly veneration before there was canonization!
If a theological distinction is made between "venerate" and "reverence," I don't think it would be absolute, but we might want to use a more general term term like proskynesis to cover the overall respect shown to saints and priests and relics and Pope and icons and sanctuaries and consecrated ground.