“Drink wine, not labels”: A lexicologist’s insight into ‘Super Tuscans’

Abstract

Following an overview of Super Tuscan wines, this study aims at providing a definition of the pseudo-Anglicism ‘Super Tuscan’. In addition, by resorting to lexicographic and corpus data, the frequency of ‘Super Tuscan’ is measured, its spelling variants are traced and the date of first attestation in both Italian and English is determined. Finally, this article considers whether the term ‘Super Tuscan’ might have turned, via de-terminologization, into a word also known and used by non-connoisseurs.