sommelier
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French sommelier (“originally, a person in charge of the beasts of burden carrying wine”), from somme (“pack”) + -ier (suffix forming the names of jobs). somme is from Vulgar Latin *sauma, from Latin sagma (“packsaddle”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌsɒmˈmɛli.ə/, /ˌsɔːməlˈjeɪ/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌsɔməlˈjeɪ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪ
- Hyphenation: som‧mel‧i‧er
Noun edit
sommelier (plural sommeliers)
- The member of staff at a restaurant who keeps the wine cellar and advises the guests on a choice of wines; a wine steward / stewardess, a wine waiter / waitress / server.
- The sommelier recommended the perfect wine, opened the bottle with panache, and served it into glasses.
- 2010, Kathleen Thompson Hill, “Sommelier”, in Career Opportunities in the Food and Beverage Industry, New York, N.Y.: Ferguson, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 44, column 1:
- A Sommelier or wine steward organizes a restaurant's entire wine program, from tasting to pairing of wines with foods the chef might prepare according to seasonal meat, seafood, and produce availability, to ordering and keeping inventory, staying on top of local, domestic, and foreign releases, and educating waitstaff about wines and their nuances. […] A Sommelier must make novice wine drinkers comfortable and explain wine complexities simply, while knowing wines well enough to satisfy the most demanding customer.
- 2014, Lisa Boalt Richardson, “Beyond the Cup: Pairing, Cooking, Cocktails, and More”, in Modern Tea: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Beverage, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 115:
- There's a new kid on the block: the tea sommelier. […] In the Western world, the first acting tea sommelier on the scene was Helen Gustafson, although the title was never bestowed her. […] She stayed at the restaurant for twenty years, and although she did not have the formal title of tea sommelier—no one did at the time—many in the industry credit her with leading the charge that has resulted in fine-dining establishments improving their tea service.
- 2015, Nak-Eon Choi, Jung H. Han, “Technological Advancements Brought by the Love of Flavors”, in How Flavor Works: The Science of Taste and Aroma, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 122:
- The fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging] brain images of sommeliers show that their brains act very differently from ordinary brains when they taste wine. An Italian radiology research group (Castriota-Scanderbeg et al., 2005) showed activation of the cerebral network in the left insula and adjoining orbito-frontal cortex in sommeliers.
Synonyms edit
Coordinate terms edit
- sommeliere, sommelière (“female sommelier”)
Translations edit
wine steward / stewardess, wine waiter / waitress
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Verb edit
sommelier (third-person singular simple present sommeliers, present participle sommeliering, simple past and past participle sommeliered)
- (rare) To act as a sommelier.
- 1993, Hotel & Catering Review, volume 23, page 6:
- The final nerve-wracking task involved “sommeliering” throughout a gourmet lunch for judges and wine writers – and answering the tricky questions which were inevitably thrown their way.
Further reading edit
French edit
Etymology edit
From somme + -ier; ultimately from bête de somme; somme is from Vulgar Latin *salma, from Latin sagma (“packsaddle”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sommelier m (plural sommeliers, feminine sommelière)
- sommelier, wine steward (a person who is in charge of the wine cellar in a restaurant)
- (estate house) the person in charge of bread, linens, crockery, and liquor; the chief of table setting
- (obsolete) the person in charge of the wine convoy, its beasts of burden, and its protection
Descendants edit
Further reading edit
- “sommelier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Polish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from French sommelier.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sommelier m pers
- sommelier, wine steward (member of staff at a restaurant who keeps the wine cellar and advises the guests on a choice of wines)
- Synonym: kiper
Declension edit
Declension of sommelier
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | sommelier | sommelierzy/sommeliery (deprecative) |
| genitive | sommeliera | sommelierów |
| dative | sommelierowi | sommelierom |
| accusative | sommeliera | sommelierów |
| instrumental | sommelierem | sommelierami |
| locative | sommelierze | sommelierach |
| vocative | sommelierze | sommelierzy |
Further reading edit
- sommelier in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Portuguese edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from French sommelier.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sommelier m (plural sommeliers, feminine sommelière, feminine plural sommelières)
Spanish edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from French sommelier.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sommelier m (plural sommelieres)
Usage notes edit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Swedish edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French sommelier.
Noun edit
sommelier c
Declension edit
| Declension of sommelier | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | sommelier | sommelieren | sommelierer | sommeliererna |
| Genitive | sommeliers | sommelierens | sommelierers | sommelierernas |