Viticultures

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The agricultural practice of cultivating grapevines for winemaking purposes
2. Techniques and methods employed in the growth and harvest of grape plants
3. The science and art involved in grape production to maximize quality and yield

Etymology: The plural "viticultures" is simply the plural of "viticulture," and the story is in its two halves: a Latin word for the grapevine and a Latin word for cultivation. "Vītis" meant the vine itself, the plant that gives us wine, and "cultūra" meant the tending or working of something, most often land and crops. Joined together, they describe the cultivation of the vine, the same way "agriculture" joins a Latin word for field with the same root for tending. English built the compound from its own parts. The first element, "viti-", comes straight from the Latin "vītis," while "culture" arrived through Middle French from the Latin "cultūra." The Latin word "cultūra" had long meant farming and husbandry before it came to mean refinement of the mind, which is why English "culture" still carries a trace of the soil in it. "Viticulture" therefore keeps the older, agricultural sense of the root, placing the vine at the centre of the work.