steelback
English
Etymology
steel (“to harden; to strengthen”) + back
Noun
steelback (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Alicant, a Spanish wine
- 1633, Farewell, Christopher, “An East-India Colation”, in Foster, Sir William, editor, The Voyage of Nicholas Downton to the East Indies 1614-15, London: Hakluyt Society, published 1939, page 146:
- Onely the Portugal inhabitants, in their townes and cities (being many and great) doe make a kinde of wine of dryed grapes or raysins of the sunne, for relish and operation the best (I thinike) in the world, not inferiour to the Spanish nectar, el vino de San Martin, being pleasant, strong, and cordiall, called raysin wine, almost of the colour of Alicant or steelebacke*; which (thankes to our honourable masters) wee were seldome without […]
* A name given to Alicant wine, which was supposed to strengthen the back.
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