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vintage

 - 3 dictionary results

vin⋅tage

[vin-tij] noun, adjective, verb, -taged, -tag⋅ing.
–noun
1. the wine from a particular harvest or crop.
2. the annual produce of the grape harvest, esp. with reference to the wine obtained.
3. an exceptionally fine wine from the crop of a good year.
4. the time of gathering grapes, or of winemaking.
5. the act or process of producing wine; winemaking.
6. the class of a dated object with reference to era of production or use: a hat of last year's vintage.
–adjective
7. of or pertaining to wines or winemaking.
8. being of a specified vintage: Vintage wines are usually more expensive than nonvintage wines.
9. representing the high quality of a past time: vintage cars; vintage movies.
10. old-fashioned or obsolete: vintage jokes.
11. being the best of its kind: They praised the play as vintage O'Neill.
–verb (used with object)
12. to gather or harvest (grapes) for wine-making: The muscats were vintaged too early.
13. to make (wine) from grapes: a region that vintages a truly great champagne.
–verb (used without object)
14. to harvest grapes for wine-making.

Origin:
1400–50; late ME (n.) < AF, equiv. to vint(er) vintner + -age -age; r. ME vindage, vendage < AF; OF vendange < L vīndēmia grape-gathering, equiv. to vīn(um) grape, wine + -dēmia a taking away (dēm(ere) to take from (see redeem ) + -ia -y 3 )
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To vintage
vin·tage   (vĭn'tĭj)   
n.  
  1. The yield of wine or grapes from a vineyard or district during one season.

  2. Wine, usually of high quality, identified as to year and vineyard or district of origin.

  3. The year or place in which a wine is bottled.

    1. The harvesting of a grape crop.

    2. The initial stages of winemaking.

    3. A group or collection of people or things sharing certain characteristics.

    4. A year or period of origin: a car of 1942 vintage.

    5. Length of existence; age.

  4. Informal

    1. A group or collection of people or things sharing certain characteristics.

    2. A year or period of origin: a car of 1942 vintage.

    3. Length of existence; age.

adj.  
  1. Of or relating to a vintage.

  2. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.

  3. Old or outmoded.

    1. Of the best: played songs that were vintage Cole Porter.

    2. Of the most distinctive: "Fatalism has coexisted with vintage American overconfidence" (Thomas Oliphant).


[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, alteration (influenced by viniter, vintner) of Old French vendange, from Latin vīndēmia : vīnum, grapes + dēmere, to take off (, de- + emere, to obtain; see em- in Indo-European roots).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

vintage 
c.1450, "harvest of grapes, yield of wine from a vineyard," from Anglo-Fr. vintage (1353), from O.Fr. vendage "yield from a vineyard," from L. vindemia "a gathering of grapes, yield of grapes," from comb. form of vinum "wine" + stem of demere "take off" (from de- "from, away from" + emere "to take;" see exempt). Sense shifted to "age or year of a particular wine" (1746), then to a general sense of "being of an earlier time" (1883). Used of cars since 1928.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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