marsala
proper noun, noun
Forms marsalas
- proper noun A town in western Sicily.
- noun A fortified wine from Sicily.
- noun A sauce made from that wine, or (loosely) made from a similar wine from elsewhere.
Etymology
From Sicilian Marsala, from an Arabic name, probably مَرْسَى عَلِيّ (marsā ʕaliyy, “Ali's harbor”), or possibly مَرْسَى اللّٰه (marsā llāh, “God's harbor”). In any case, the first element is مَرْسَى (marsā, “harbor”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [It., fr. Marsala, in Sicyly.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “marsala”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details