jerez

Forms

jerez m (plural jereces)^[1]

Etymology

The wine takes its name from Spanish Jerez, the town of Jerez de la Frontera in the province of Cádiz, where it is made.^[1][2][3] The DLE gives no etymology, but defines it as the white wine made in Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda.^[4]

The town's name was Old Spanish Xerez in medieval Castilian, where ⟨x⟩ stood for /ʃ/; the sound later became /x/.^[2] The spelling with ⟨j⟩ dates from the 18th century.^[2] Under the Moors it was Arabic شريش (Šarīš).^[2] The Spanish Wiktionary traces the name to a Phoenician name of the area, and gives the Roman forms Latin Ceret or Seret.^[2] Under the Visigoths it was Late Latin Seritium or Xeritium.^[2] Etymonline gives the Roman name as Latin urbs Caesaris.^[5] Echegaray, in the 19th century, derived it from Cesarium.^[6]

English took the name of the wine as English sherris in the 1530s, from Spanish ⟨vino de Xeres⟩ “wine of Xeres”, and made the singular sherry from it around 1600.^[5] Spanish also passed it to French xérès, Catalan xerès, Portuguese xerez and Russian херес (xeres).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The town is named Xeres in a privilege of 1251 and Xerez in royal letters of 1253.^[7] The wine is first recorded in Puerto Rico in 1513: 4 pipas de vino de jerez “4 casks of Jerez wine”.^[8] In Guatemala in 1586 it is still vino de Xerez.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word was first vino de Jerez “wine of Jerez”, and then the name of the town alone came to mean the wine.^[8] A Bogotá text of 1866 has vaya una copita de jerez “how about a little glass of sherry”.^[8] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 has it as a noun: a fine wine made in the Andalusian town.^[3] Today the DLE limits it to the protected wine of the three towns of the Cádiz area.^[4][9]

In León jerez also names a sweet white grape, the vine that bears it and the wine made from it.^[10] The Spanish saying entre Jerez y la frontera means “neither here nor there”.^[11]

Timeline

• 1251 – the town is named Xeres in a royal privilege for Seville.^[7]
• 1513 – vino de jerez is recorded in Puerto Rico.^[8]
• 1530s – English borrows the wine name as sherris.^[5]
• c. 1600 – English forms the singular sherry.^[5]
• 1866 – una copita de jerez in a Bogotá text.^[8]
• 1917 – Alemany's dictionary defines the noun.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. sherry: a fine white wine made and aged in the area of Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda: Pidió una copa de jerez seco.^[4][1][12]
2. (León) A sweet white grape (uva), the vine that bears it, and the wine made from it.^[10]

Related words

• Jerez
• jerezano
• English sherry

Usage notes

The plural is jereces.^[1] The page name is lowercase for the wine; the town is Jerez.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 982
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. jerez
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 20
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jerez
8. ^ a b c d e f Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. jerez
9. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. jerez
10. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. jerez
11. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jerez
12. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jerez