unvintageable

unvintageable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ vintage +‎ -able, an allusion to the Greek poet Homer's epithets for the sea.

Adjective

unvintageable (comparative more unvintageable, superlative most unvintageable)

1. (poetic) Not fit to drink.
   • 1881, Oscar Wilde, Vita Nuova

     I stood by the unvintageable sea
     Till the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray.

   • 1915, Rupert Brooke, en route to the Bosporus, as quoted by William Manchester, The Last Lion, page 518

     Will Hero’s Tower crumble under 15-inch guns? Will the sea be polyphloisbic and wine dark and unvintageable?