Etymologically
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vinaceus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [wiːˈnaː.ke.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [viˈnaː.t͡ʃe.us][1]

Forms

vīnāceus (feminine vīnācea, neuter vīnāceum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Also spelled vīnācius.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin vīnum (“wine”) + -āceus.[2][3] Vīnum goes back to Proto-Italic *wīno- and Proto-Indo-European *ueih1-(ō)n (“vine; wine”), an n-stem that de Vaan, following Beekes, takes from the root “to weave, wrap”, the vine being “the weaving one”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Cato,[4] who uses it as a noun for the refuse of the wine press: dolia quo vinacios condat, “jars to store the grape refuse in”.[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means of or belonging to wine or the grape.[3][1] Most often it is a noun: in the plural, or as a feminine singular, the refuse of wine-pressing, the skins and stones, as in Cato, Varro and Columella;[2][3] in the neuter, a grape pip, as in Cicero's wonder at the force ex acini vinaceo, “from the pip of a grape”, that produces great trunks and branches.[2] Lewis and Short give it as a grape-stone in Cato and Columella and a grape skin in Varro.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin also has the neuter as a wine cup.[5]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the refuse of the wine press.[2][4][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of grape skins.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a grape pip.[2][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of grape-stones.[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or belonging to wine or the grape.[3][1][5]

Noun

  1. The refuse from wine-pressing: grape skins and stones, husks.[2][3]
  2. A grape pip, grape-stone.[2][3][1]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A wine cup.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de