Is aceto term the secret for Spanish vinegar market acceleration?

Strong Roman heritage has historically associated Vinegar with wine in the Mediterranean culture. Perhaps its accidental discovery as by-product of wine associated vinegar with a negative perception. Such perception across European countries could be influenced by the etymologic origin of the vinegar word in their respective vehicular languages.

It is not uncommon for apparently very different European languages to find their respective original ancestors of a given term all within Latin language. French word vinaigre for example has its etymologic origin in the Latin words vinum acer (literally sour wine), which then derived into vin aigre in old French [1]. Corresponding English and Spanish words, vinegar and vinagre, evidently tap into such French influence, probably due to their geographical proximity, inheriting to some extent the implicitly negative acer component.

You might be already wondering about vinegar translation in some other European languages spoken beyond French borders such as German essig, Dutch azijn and Luxembourgish esseg. All of them have its origin in atek, a metathesized variant of aket, from Latin acetum [2]. This term, which gives name to acetum.eu website, was indeed the mainstream denomination for vinegar within Roman world. Its modern Italian evolution has been widely popularized by the worldwide famous aceto balsamico. Curiously, aceto term is free from the negative concept of sour wine within vinegar's origin. Let's further explore the potential advantage of aceto-related denomination for vinegar.

According to recent research [3], the European countries with the highest levels of vinegar per capita consumption in 2018 were the Netherlands, Germany and France, all of them surpassing 2.8 litres of per capita and year. Not surprisingly, translation of vinegar in respective official languages of two first countries are related to Latin acetum. France, perhaps the exception that proves the rule, is however considered the country where industrial vinegar production was initiated in 1670 through the Orleans method [4] and its cuisine is famous for making good use of vinegar [5].

It is in Italy where longest-running vinegar brand Giusti is located, particularly since 1605 [6]. After Italy and United States, Spain is the third largest vinegar exporting country in the world according to another piece of research [7]. In contrast to Italy, it was not until 1945 when Antonio Páez started a then innovative local business in Jerez, Southern Spain, by buying sour wine stocks to turn them into vinegar and giving birth to famous Jerez vinegar appellation of origin [8]. Spanish avinagrado is a common metaphoric adjective to define a bad-tempered person. Would the Spanish vinegar market have developed quicker if the less known and more positive Spanish term aceto had been more commonly used instead of vinagre? We will never know, but perhaps increasing the use of aceto word might accelerate it even more.

[1] Wiktionary. (n.d.). vinaigre. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vinaigre

[2] Wiktionary. (n.d.). Essig. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Essig

[3] IndexBox (January 21st, 2020). Vinegar market in the EU increases for the third consecutive year, reaching $871M. Global Trade Magazine. https://www.globaltrademag.com/vinegar-market-in-the-eu-increases-for-the-third-consecutive-year-reaching-871m/

[4] Cómo hacer el mejor vinagre. Susaeta.

[5] Rose, V. (2006). Apple Cider Vinegar (1st ed.). iUniverse.

[6] VAUGHAN, K (April 18th, 2022). Meet Giusti, a 400-Year-Old Balsamic Vinegar Empire. Food52. https://food52.com/blog/27314-giusti-oldest-balsamic-vinegar-producer

[7] Vinegar and substitutes for vinegar obtained from acetic acid. OEC. Retrieved June 19th, 2023, from https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/vinegar 

[8] (August 23rd, 2016). Fallece Antonio Paéz Lobato, el 'Rey del Vinagre'. Andalucia Información. https://andaluciainformacion.es/jerez/616576/fallece-antonio-paez-lobato-el-rey-del-vinagre/