What does curling have to do with grapes? Etymology! Curling gets its name from the way the stone curls on the ice, and can be traced back to the root *g(e)r- “curving, crooked”. This also produced Germanic *krappon “hook”, and from that Old French graper “catch with a hook, pick grapes”, so basically the word transferred from referring to the vine hook used for picking grapes to the grapes themselves, replacing the Old English word winberige, literally “wine berry”.

What does curling have to do with grapes? Etymology! Curling gets its name from the way the stone curls on the ice, and can be traced back to the root *g(e)r- “curving, crooked”. This also produced Germanic *krappon “hook”, and from that Old French graper “catch with a hook, pick grapes”, so basically the word transferred from referring to the vine hook used for picking grapes to the grapes themselves, replacing the Old English word winberige, literally “wine berry”.