Also 5 vigneroun, 7 vineron. [F. vigneron, f. vigne VINE sb.] One who cultivates grape-vines; a wine grower.
α. 1456. Sir G. Hay, Bk. Knighthood, Wks. (S.T.S.), II. 60. The vignerounis labouraris had wroucht all the day, fra the morne early till nycht.
1480. Caxton, Ovid’s Met., XIV. xii. Lyke a vigneron beryng a sarpe or croked knyf to cut vygnes.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 15. Let Readers also surely think and trow, They see the painfull Vigneron pull the grapes.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxxii. 296. They are become with time and practise more expert vignerons.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 273. Because it is a plant which is to be governed like the other vines I refer it to my vignerons.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 117. [He] prunes The End of’s Life, as Vignerons Cut short the Branches of a Vine.
1731. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Vitis, But as to this, you need not consult either the Merchants or the Vignerons.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 294. I … can procure for you the best crops from the vigneron himself.
1801. Charlotte Smith, Lett. Solit. Wand., II. 123. Assisting the vignerons in their now commencing labours of the vintage.
1834. Miss Berry, Jrnl. (1865), III. 424. To make some new wine, to give the vignerons when getting in the general crop.
1884. Blackw. Mag., Dec., 769/2. The vignerons of South Australia … succeeded in producing a vinous liquid that [etc.].
β. 1683. Penn, Wks. (1782), IV. 317. I would advise you to send for some thousands of plants out of France, with some able vinerons, and people of the other vocation.
1698. G. Thomas, Pensilvania, 16. [These lands] have produc’d Choice Wine, being daily cultivated by skilful Vinerons.
