vinaț

Forms

vinaț n (plural vinațuri or vinațe)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin vīnāceus (“of wine, of grapes”), as DEX, Tiktin, the DLR and the REW give it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu treats it under vin and also calls the Latin source probable.^[6] Șăineanu took the Latin adjective to have stood in a phrase with hortus (“garden”).^[7] The Latin word is formed on vīnum (“wine”) with the suffix -āceus; in Latin it also meant the refuse from pressed grapes.^[1][8] Scriban compares Romanian words with the same ending, cârnaț and găinaț.^[9]

The Latin word survives elsewhere mostly in feminine forms for the residue of winemaking: Italian vinaccia “grape pomace”, French vinasse, Spanish vinaza and Portuguese vinhaça.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1753.^[3] MDA2's and the DLR's first quotation, from a Moldavian document of 1756, speaks of the costs laid on wines: „asupra vinaților sînt atîtea cheltuiele”.^[10][4] The word was used mainly in the plural, for kinds of wine.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th and 19th centuries vinaț was the usual word for a sort of wine in documents on trade and taxes and in books on winegrowing, and the classic writers used it: Negruzzi praises the Cotnari vineyard for its vinațe, and Caragiale has a man with savings and well-kept vinațuri.^[4][11] Today it is a popular word.^[2]

Regional senses moved away from the drink: in Transylvania the feminine vinață meant grape pomace, and old texts used the word for a vine plantation or a winegrowing district.^[10] The REW records the sense “vineyard”.^[5] Regionally it could also mean brandy.^[11]

Timeline

• 1753 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[3]
• 1756 – vinaților “wines” in a Moldavian document.^[10][4]
• 1775 – vinaț in a document on the wine carts crossing Putna county.^[4]
• 1828 – the feminine vinață in a document on the wine tax.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) wine, or a variety of wine; used mostly in the plural.^[2][10][1]
2. (Transylvania, in the form vinață) Grape pomace.^[10]
3. (obsolete) A vine plantation; a winegrowing district.^[10]

Related words

• vin
• vinos

Usage notes

Both plurals occur: vinațuri and the older vinațe.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1198
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vináț
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vinaț
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9337
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. vin
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 697
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1407
10. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1481
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 662