Etymology and origin of the Latin word vinarius
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
- Ultimate origin
- Proto-Indo-European (*ueih₁-(ō)n)
Etymology tree
Forms
vīnārius (feminine vīnāria, neuter vīnārium); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin vīnum (“wine”) + -ārius.[2][1] De Vaan traces vīnum to Proto-Italic *wīno- and Proto-Indo-European *ueih₁-(ō)n (“vine; wine”), cognate with Umbrian vinu (“wine”), Hittite u̯ii̯an- (“wine”) and Ancient Greek οἶνος (oînos, “wine”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,[3][4] whose Miles gloriosus has someone accuse others of holding a Bacchic revel in the wine cellar.[2][5]
Semantic evolution
As an adjective it means used for making, storing or selling wine: Cato has a wine vat, Plautus a wine cellar, Cicero a wine vessel, and Pliny the Elder a wine skin.[5][2] The neuter is a vessel for serving wine, as in Plautus' Poenulus.[2] Of persons it means dealing in wine, and as a masculine noun a wine merchant, as in an inscription for a collector of payments in the wine trade.[2] Cato seems to use it of a fruit-bearing shoot left on a vine.[2] Ulpian, citing Pomponius, uses it of habitual drinkers, whom some held not to be covered by the edict on sales.[2] Niermeyer records a medieval sense, the monk in charge of the wine supply.[6]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a wine cellar and of wine vessels.[2][4]
- 234–149 BC – Cato of a wine vat and of vine shoots.[5][2]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero of a wine vessel.[5]
- before 223 AD – Ulpian of habitual drinkers.[2]
Meanings
Adjective
- Of or for wine; used in making, storing or selling wine.[2][5][1][7]
- (of persons) Dealing in wine.[2]
Noun
- A wine merchant, vintner.[2][1]
- (neuter) A vessel for serving wine.[2]
- An habitual drinker.[2]
- (Medieval Latin) The monk in charge of the wine supply.[6]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry
“Vinarius.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/vinarius. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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