barista

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian barista (“bartender, barman”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Italian from 1939–40,^[2] formed from bar (“bar, café”), itself borrowed from the English word bar,^[4][3][7] and -ista (“-ist”),^[2][4] from Latin -ista.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bartender in an Italian bar: 1982, in P. Hofman's Rome, Sweet Tempestuous Life.^[2][3] Etymonline finds it in use as a purely English word by 1992, for a bartender in a coffee shop.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Italian, and in its first English uses, the word meant someone working behind an Italian or Italian-style bar.^[2][3] The specific sense of a person who makes and serves coffee in a coffee bar arose in American English and is now the usual one.^[2] Collins dates the word to the 20th century, and the Oxford dictionaries to the 1980s.^[5][6][8]

Timeline

• 1982 – a bartender in an Italian or Italian-style bar.^[2][3]
• 1992 – a person who makes and serves coffee in a coffee shop.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person whose job is to make and serve coffee and similar drinks, such as espresso, in a coffee bar: The barista drew a fern in the foam of my latte.^[3][5][2]
2. A bartender in an Italian or Italian-style bar.^[2][5]

Related words

• bar
• -ist

Usage notes

In Italian the plural is baristi for men and bariste for women;^[2] in English the plural is baristas.^[3] Etymonline notes that the word applies equally to women and men, and that the typical barista in Italy is said to be a man.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press