Viner

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who tends to or grows grapevines for winemaking A person involved in the art of viticulture to produce wine A term referring to someone who specializes in the cultivation of grapes for the purpose of making wine
2. Someone who tends grape plants specifically for wine production
3. A person who manages grapevine growth primarily to harvest grapes used in winemaking

Etymology: "Viner" is a rare English noun for a person who works in a vineyard, and its history runs through two languages before reaching English. It came into Middle English as "vynour," borrowed from Old French "vignor," which meant a vine-grower or vineyard worker. The Old French word was built on "vigne," the vine itself, so the English word has always carried the same literal idea: someone whose job is the vines. The English form looks like it was assembled from "vine" plus the agent ending "-er," and that surface reading is roughly right in spirit. Yet the word was not formed in English at all. Its suffix came along with the whole word from French, so the familiar "-er" in "viner" is a French ending that English adopted rather than one it attached itself.