Obs. Also 7 stopponi, -ony, stipone, stiponio, stipony, 8 stoponey, stepany, stepney. [Of obscure origin; possibly a use of Stepney, the name of a parish in the East of London (cf. quot. 1656).] A kind of raisin-wine, made from raisins with lemon juice and sugar added.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Stipone, a kind of sweet compound liquor, drunk in some places of London in the summer time.
1664. Etheredge, Comical Rev., V. iv. Do not you understand the mystery of Stiponie, Jenny?
1669. Sir K. Digby’s Closet Opened, 124. To make Stepponi.
1672. Hannah Woolley, Queen-like Closet, I. (1684), 29. To make Raisin-Wine or Stepony.
1676. Poor Robin’s Intell., 11–18 April, 2/2. Then comes in the faculty of spunging Stipony, and of enflaming the reckoning as occasion shall require.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Steppony, a Decoction of Raisins of the Sun, and Lemons in Conduit-water, sweetned with Sugar and Bottled up.
1717. Poor Robin, July, B 2 b. They drink … Chocolate,… Stepany, Tea.
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Wine-Raisin or Stepony may be thus made [etc.].
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Stepney.
