Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Greek white or rosé wine flavored with pine resin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable A Greek resinated white or rosé wine of a sort that has been produced for at least 2700 years.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun Greek wine flavored with resin

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Modern Greek, probably from Italian resina, resin, from Latin rēsīna; see resin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek ρετσίνα (retsína), from ρετσίνι (retsíni, "resin"), from Ancient Greek ῥητίνη ("pine resin").

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Examples

  • Here are largish beachfront hotels, and restaurants serving ubiquitous feta salad or deep-fried calamari drenched in lemon juice, washed down with retsina.

    Insiders' guide to Greece 2011

  • Here are largish beachfront hotels, and restaurants serving ubiquitous feta salad or deep-fried calamari drenched in lemon juice, washed down with retsina.

    Insiders' guide to Greece 2011

  • We're told that the Greeks have only themselves to blame: They retire too early, drink too much retsina and often break into dance without warning .... all on borrowed money.

    Les Leopold: Help! What's the Cure for Financial Insanity? 2010

  • They have already laid aside their other laughter, that of mothers braiding their daughters 'hair, or of the dance steps of the plump-faced girls tumbling to their first retsina at the age of three.

    The Dance Begins 2010

  • It played Guantanamera and had plastic awningsseparating us from the road, but served the most delicious fried courgettes, pork souvlaki and local Robola white wine (no need for retsina here: Kefalonia produces Greece's best wine, a legacy of the Venetians).

    Empty beaches and great deals in Greece 2010

  • We're told that the Greeks have only themselves to blame: They retire too early, drink too much retsina and often break into dance without warning .... all on borrowed money.

    Les Leopold: Help! What's the Cure for Financial Insanity? 2010

  • Known as dolmades in Greece and simply as vine leaves elsewhere, it's probably no accident that leaves of the grape vine are used in this manner in a region not noted for the quality of its wines; quality sometimes so poor that the Greeks came to add pine resin to certain wines retsina and thought it an improvement!

    At My Table 2009

  • Known as dolmades in Greece and simply as vine leaves elsewhere, it's probably no accident that leaves of the grape vine are used in this manner in a region not noted for the quality of its wines; quality sometimes so poor that the Greeks came to add pine resin to certain wines retsina and thought it an improvement!

    Archive 2009-02-01 2009

  • I stayed with a Greek family in Athens for a few weeks, where I learned that besides lemon juice, garlic and retsina oh yum!

    Because everyone is doing it... mikandra 2008

  • Looks like YouTube got their caca together and fixed itself right on time; if it had been otherwise, I could never have brought you the following unique treasure, this retsina for your retinas, this Everclear for your eyeballs, this sulphuric acid for your synapses.

    2007 January 14 « raincoaster 2007

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