Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A cultivated variety of the muscadine grape with sweet yellowish fruit.
  • noun A wine made from this grape.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cultivated variety of the muscadine, bullace, or southern foxgrape, Vitis rotundifolia (V. vulpina), of the southern United States and Mexico.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) An American grape, a form of Vitis vulpina, found in the Southern Atlantic States, and often cultivated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large greenish-bronze grape native to the Southeastern United States, a variety of the muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia).
  • noun A sweet, golden or amber-colored American wine made from this variety of grape.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun amber-green muscadine grape of southeastern United States

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After the Scuppernong, River in northeast North Carolina.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named after the Scuppernong River and Lake in North Carolina near which the grapes were first found and cultivated. Probably from an Algonquian word. Both senses, "grape" and "wine", are first found in documents from the 1800s-1820s.

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Examples

  • The book also turned me on to so many new ingredients, like sorghum, Carolina gold rice, spicy Blenheim ginger ale (which I now order by the case), country ham, scuppernong grapes, and, of course, boiled peanuts (per the bumper sticker, I "brake for" them at any occasion).

    Best of 2009 2010

  • Image via Wikipedia I was at the Farmers Market yesterday and the air was winey with the scent of scuppernong and muscadine grapes.

    Darlene's Digest Darlene 2008

  • Image via Wikipedia I was at the Farmers Market yesterday and the air was winey with the scent of scuppernong and muscadine grapes.

    Archive 2008-08-01 Darlene 2008

  • Dinner dishes include lacquered foie gras with scuppernong a muscadine grape and venison loin with chanterelle mushrooms.

    Most Expensive Restaurants in the... 2006

  • The next day was the perfect fall day, bright and cool, with a high blue sky and the welcome smell of a change of season, The tea olive trees in the first full bloom, scuppernong grapes and pine straw heated up by the sun and soon, with all of that, the smell of mown grass.

    Bailey White: 'The Telephone Man' 2005

  • Then she went to her old refrigerator, brought out a full bottle of scuppernong wine and two chilled jelly glasses and poured us each a heavy slug.

    Noble Norfleet Reynolds Price 2002

  • Then she went to her old refrigerator, brought out a full bottle of scuppernong wine and two chilled jelly glasses and poured us each a heavy slug.

    Noble Norfleet Reynolds Price 2002

  • Words of moral indignation rose to her lips but suddenly she remembered the Yankee who lay under the tangle of scuppernong vines at Tara.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • Dr. Meade had not thought to warn her that a woman in her condition should not drink, for it never occurred to him that a decent woman would drink anything stronger than scuppernong wine.

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

  • “Pork, what of the corn whisky Pa buried in the oak barrel under the scuppernong arbor?”

    Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

Comments

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  • NOUN: 1. See muscadine. 2a. A cultivated variety of the muscadine grape with sweet yellowish fruit. b. A wine made from this grape.

    ETYMOLOGY: After the Scuppernong River in northeast North Carolina.

    ----------------------------

    How boring! I thought it was a kind of cookie. (I think I'm confusing it with snickerdoodle, which is an equally awesome word.)

    June 23, 2007

  • Oh, I don't think it's boring! (Although a cookie is much preferred....) Anyway, this word always reminds me of some kind of mollusk. ;-)

    June 23, 2007

  • We used to call these "push grapes" because you had to squeeze the bitter skin in order to push the very sweet pulp into your mouth. They grew uncultivated in our woods.

    October 9, 2007

  • It does sound like a mollusk.

    I like mollusc better, though it weirds me out.

    I also like weirds.

    October 9, 2007

  • You're weirds, chained_bear. ;->

    October 9, 2007

  • No, no, it has to be a verb! Silly Reesetee. Verbing weirds language.

    October 9, 2007

  • "Maudie Atkinson told me you broke down her scuppernong arbor this morning. She's going to tell your father and then you'll wish you'd never seen the light of day!"

    --Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

    I read To Kill a Mockingbird a long time ago, but whenever I hear the title, I think of the film and Gregory Peck, a great actor and orator. I never get tired of hearing his voice.

    December 8, 2008

  • "There will be snide routines about the local wine. Our table isn't ready, and I walk ahead of my daughter and take a seat at the bar. To spite her, I order a scuppernong champagne."

    - From "The Landlord" by Wells Tower, in The New Yorker, September 13, 2010, p 69

    September 16, 2010