Oenology

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /iˈnɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/

Definitions

1. The study of wine and winemaking, encompassing its history, science, and the art of tasting and evaluating wines
2. This field focuses on various aspects of wine production, including fermentation processes, grape varieties, and sensory analysis
3. This discipline involves the comprehensive examination of wine, addressing its production methods, chemical properties, and sensory evaluation techniques

Etymology: Oenology is built from two Greek elements: "oinos", meaning wine, and "-logia", the suffix for a body of knowledge or systematic study, which gives English "-logy" in words like biology. The combination is a plain technical coinage rather than an ancient term, so the Greeks who spoke of "oinos" never had a discipline by this name. The "oeno-" form is the ancient "oinos" as it appears in combining form, and "-logy" is the same suffix that English took from Greek in the 18th and 19th centuries to name sciences and fields of study. The word's sense is narrower than its parts suggest. A "-logy" word is usually a branch of knowledge, and oenology is the systematic study of wine: how it is made, what chemical changes happen during fermentation and ageing, and how tasters assess it. The Greek root contributes only the subject, while the suffix turns that subject into a formal field with its own methods and training.

Synonyms: wine science, viticulture