Vintener

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling for a wine merchant or seller of wine ; a medieval officer placed in charge of a unit of twenty men
2. An old term for a dealer in wine ; a historical official who led a company of twenty soldiers or men under his command
3. A wine trader in former times ; a commander responsible for twenty men, used in medieval military and feudal organization

Etymology: "Vintener" is an obsolete spelling of "vintner," and the variant shows the word's chain of borrowings clearly. It descends from Middle English "vyntener," itself a variant of "viniter," which came from Old French "vineter" or "vinetier." Those French forms meant "wine-merchant" or "grape-harvester," and they in turn came from Medieval Latin "vinetarius," a wine dealer. The Latin word was built from "vinetum," meaning "vineyard," which was derived from "vinum," the ordinary Latin word for wine. So the trade was named for the place where grapes grew, and the place was named for the wine. Over the centuries the "-ener" ending of the English variant replaced the older "-iter" spelling, and "vintener" came to be a spelling of the same occupation.