Vintner

Forms: α. 5 vyntenere, -tyner, 5–6 -tener, 6 -tenar (Sc. ventennar), 6–7 vintener; 6 vyntoner, 7 vintoner. β. 5–6 vyntner(e, 6– vintner (8 vinctner). [Alteration of VINTER.] One who deals in or sells wine; a wine-merchant; † an innkeeper selling wine.

  α.  c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 211. Masouns, carpenterys, of Yngelond and of Fraunce, Bakerys, browsterys, vyntenerys, with fressh lycour.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 510. Vyntenere, vinarius.

c. 1470.  Cath. Angl., 402/1 (Add. MS.), Vyntyner.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 25. Or as the vyntenar gyurth frely to his customers or byers a taste of his wyne.

1530.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 91. No vyntoner shuld set any wyne a broche.

1587.  Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 149. Such [wine] as was anie waies mingled or brued by the vintener.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., III. 156. They had not our Vinteners fraud to mixe their Wines.

1636.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Trav. Signes Zodiack, A v b. All the worthy Company of Vintoners.

1669–70.  Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 301. One Mr. Wadlow, a vintener,… was represented as notoriously faulty.

  β.  c. 1460.  Promp. Parv. (Winch. MS.), Vyntnere, vinarius.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 402/1. A vyntner…, vinitor, merothecarius.

1548.  Cooper, Elyot’s Dict., Oenopola,… a tauerner or vintner.

1570.  B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. (1880), 54. Straight after this comes Vrban in, the Vintners God deuine.

1592.  Greene, Upst. Courtier, G ij. Now sir for the vintner, hee is an honest substantiall man, a friend to al good fellowes.

1605.  Breton, Old Man’s Lesson, B ij. The Vintner, the Grocer, the Comfit-maker,… doe by the venting of their wares, the better maintaine their trades.

1657.  Trapp, Comm. Job xxxiii. 3. They … may here learn … not to huckster the Word of God, or corrupt it with their own mixtures, as Vintners do their wines.

1687.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2285/4. Charles Courtney … Vintner and Innholder.

1725.  W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, List of Subs., Mr. Peter Hudson, of Richmond, Vinctner.

1772.  Johnson, in Boswell, 6 April. Mr. Pitt might think it an advantageous thing for him to make him a vintner, and get him all the Portugal trade; but [etc.].

1810.  Crabbe, Borough, V. 195. Uncheck’d, the vintner still his poison vends.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 633. Once, merely from a malignant whim, he staved all the wine in a vintner’s cellar.

1880.  Dixon, Windsor, III. xxxi. 306. A vintner was a big man in Elizabeth’s time.

  † b.  Merchant vintner. (Cf. MERCHANT sb. 1 and MERCHANT TAILOR, etc.) Obs.

1532–3.  Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 6. If at the tyme of any suche sale of Wyne purposed to be made, the merchaunt vyntener, or other owner … thereof, do … declare [etc.].

1600.  Chester Pl., Proëm. (Shaks. Soc.), 4. And you, worthy marchauntes vintners that nowe have plenty of wine, Amplifye the storie of those wise Kinges three.

  Hence Vintneress, a female vintner. Vintnership, the occupation or position of a vintner. Vintnery, the trade of a vintner; wine-selling.

1641.  J. Johnson, Acad. Love, 89.

1673.  O. Walker, Educ., 67. He that lives abstemiously … needs not study the wholesomnes of this meat,… nor is critical in cookery and vintnership.

1816.  J. Struthers, Poet. Wks. (1850), I. Notes 148. Before engaging in the tempting career, let them consider … how they will enjoy a VINTNERSHIP.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. V. ii. Unless … the father of him did, in an unexceptionable manner, perform Cookery and Vintnery in the Village of Ouarville.