malmsey

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɑːmzɪ/ (UK); /ˈmɑ(l)mzi/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It comes from Middle English malmesey,^[2][3] perhaps through Middle Dutch malemesye or Provençal,^[2][4] from Medieval Latin malmasia,^[5][2][4][3] from Medieval Greek Monembasía, the town of Monemvasia in the southern Peloponnese, an important wine centre in the Middle Ages.^{[5][2][4][3][6]} The town's name means “(town of the) one entrance”, from its single causeway to the mainland.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A strong, sweet wine, originally from around Monemvasia (1407 in Barnhart; about 1400 in Etymonline).^[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The wine was later made in the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, but kept its name.^[4][7] A Madeira variety called malmsey madeira is recorded from 1723,^[2] and Merriam-Webster now defines malmsey as the sweetest kind of Madeira.^[3] The word also named the grape (1511).^[7] Middle English also had malvesy, from the Italian form malvasia.^[4]

Timeline

• 1407 – malmesey.^[2]
• 1511 – the grape.^[7]
• 1723 – malmsey madeira.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sweet fortified wine, originally made in Greece and now mainly in Madeira.

Related words

• Madeira
• malvasia

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press