Vineyard
nounA plot of land where grapevines are grown, typically to produce grapes for wine.
How to spell vineyard
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce vineyard
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does vineyard mean?
- nounA plot of land where grapevines are grown, typically to produce grapes for wine.
Vineyard in a sentence
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The family bought a hillside vineyard in the south of France.
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Workers picked the ripe grapes across the entire vineyard before the autumn rains.
Where does vineyard come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word goes back to the Old English wingeard, a compound of win, meaning 'wine', and geard, meaning 'yard' or 'enclosure'; so the original sense was literally a 'wine enclosure', the fenced ground where grapevines were grown. After the Norman Conquest, French and Latin influence reshaped the first element: Latin vinea (a plantation of vines) and Old French vigne pushed the spelling toward 'vine', giving us the modern 'vineyard'. The word's relatives are easy to spot, since 'vine', 'wine', and 'vintage' all spring from the same Latin vinum, meaning 'wine'. The spelling trap lives in the join between the two halves: the word is pronounced 'VIN-yard', with the 'e' of 'vine' staying silent, which tempts writers to drop it and produce 'vinyard'. Remembering that it is simply 'vine' plus 'yard' keeps that silent 'e' in place.
How the word is built
- vine (from Latin vinea: a plantation of grapevines)
- yard (from Old English geard: an enclosure or plot of ground)
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