Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Circumcidaneus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CIRCUMCIDA'NEUS. Literally, cut round; but the word is employed in a special sense to designate an inferior quality of newly-made wine, or must, produced by repeated squeezings under the press beam. To understand distinctly the meaning of the word and the quality of the article intended by it, we have only to reflect, that when the fresh grapes had been crushed in a vat by the naked feet, the residue of stalks and skins (pes) was carried in a mass to the pressing machine (torcular), and there subjected to the action of a powerful beam (prelum) screwed down upon it, which extracted all the juice remaining in them. This operation would naturally cause a portion of the mass to bulge out beyond the edge of the surfaces between which it was squeezed, without being thoroughly pressed. It was therefore, cut off all round with a knife, and again placed under the beam, and the juice it yielded was the circumcidaneum. When the mass of skins was enclosed in a basket (fiscina), or between laths of wood (regulae), it was purposely to prevent it from bulging out, and, consequently, when so treated, there was no circumcidaneum produced. Cato, R. R. 23. 4. Varro. R. R. i. 24. Columell. xii. 36. Plin. H. N. xiv. 23. and 25.