wine [OE] At heart wine is the same word as vine [ME]. Both can be traced back to Latin vinum, ‘wine’, which also gave us vinegar [ME] formed from Latin vinus acer ‘sour wine’ via Old French vyn egre; vintage [LME] via French vendage, from Latin vindemia ‘wine removal’; and vinyl—in technical use vinyl is a plastic created from a derivative of ethylene, which is a naturally occurring gas given off by ripening fruit. See also german words, truth.