Word of the Day

: September 1, 2016

oenophile

noun EE-nuh-fyle

What It Means

: a lover or connoisseur of wine

oenophile in Context

Serious oenophiles will not be impressed with this particular wine, but it should be up to the standards of less-discriminating consumers.

"Founded in 1992, New Orleans Wine and Food Experience has definitely earned its place as an event that oenophiles, gourmets and any combination thereof mark on their to-do list each year." — Sue Strachan, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 28 May 2016

Did You Know?

"It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth," wrote the 1st-century A.D. Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder. The truth about the word wine is that it goes back to Latin vinum, but it is also a distant relative of the Greek word for wine, which is oinos. Indeed, Latin borrowed from the Greek to create a combining form that means "wine," oeno-. Modern French speakers combined oeno- with -phile (Greek for "lover of") to create oenophile before we adopted it from them in the mid-1800s. Oenophiles are sure to know oenology (now more often spelled enology) as the science of wine making and oenologist (now more often enologist) for one versed in oenology.