muscatel

[ muhs-kuh-tel, muhs-kuh-tel ]

noun

1. a sweet wine made from muscat grapes.
2. a muscat grape.
3. a raisin made from muscat grapes.

muscatel

/ ˌmʌskəˈtɛl /

noun

1. Also calledmuscat a rich sweet wine made from muscat grapes
2. the grape or raisin from a muscat vine

Word History and Origins

Origin of muscatel¹

1350–1400; < Middle French, equivalent to muscat muscat + -el noun suffix; replacing Middle English muscadel ( le ) < Middle French, equivalent to muscad- (< Old Provençal muscade, feminine of muscat musky) + -elle, feminine of -el noun suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of muscatel¹

C14: from Old French muscadel, from Old Provençal, from moscadel, from muscat musky. See musk

Example Sentences

The wine hasn’t been fashionable, perhaps because of its lean profile and the similarity in name to muscat, or moscato, and muscatel.

From Washington Post

You’d get a better sense of resale political sentiment by listening to hobos arguing over the end of a bottle of muscatel.

From Fox News

He is a quiet man, who loves golf the way a wino loves muscatel.

From Golf Digest

“More delicious than a thousand kisses, milder than muscatel wine,” Johann Sebastian Bach writes, in his “Coffee Cantata,” from the eighteenth century.

From The New Yorker

And the orange cake was light and paired with muscatel.

From Washington Post