scuppernong

/ˈskʌpənɒŋ/

Etymology

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.

Why this word is great

SCUPPERNONG — [Noun] A large greenish-bronze grape native to the Southeastern United States, or the sweet, golden wine made from it, belonging to the muscadine species (Vitis rotundifolia). Named after the Scuppernong River and Lake in North Carolina, likely from an Algonquian word, possibly askuponong ("place of the askupo") or ascopo ("sweet bay tree"). Unlike "muscadine" (the broader species encompassing darker varieties) or "concord" (a purple Northeastern grape with a wholly different tang), the scuppernong is a singular cultivar—thick-skinned, sun-warmed, and stubbornly regional. It is the heavy bronze clusters sagging over a Carolina arbor, the golden wine pooling in a mason jar at a backwoods still, the slow, sticky sweetness of a fruit that refuses to be tamed by frost or time. Some things grow where they are meant to, and nowhere else.

noun

  1. A large greenish-bronze grape native to the Southeastern United States, a variety of the muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia).“Plucking an occasional camellia, getting a squirt of hot milk from Miss Maudie Atkinson’s cow on a summer day, helping ourselves to someone’s scuppernongs was part of our ethical culture, but money was different.”
  2. A sweet, golden or amber-colored US wine made from this variety of grape.