bistro

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bistro, also bistrot,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} originally Parisian slang for a small wine shop or restaurant, recorded from 1884;^[3][4] Dictionary.com and Wiktionary give its first French sense as the keeper of a tavern.^[7][1] Its origin is unknown.^[4][3][7][1] Barnhart notes that the French sources can neither explain the word's ending nor find a base that fits its stem, since bistringue (“cabaret”) (1909) is too late and bistraud (“little shepherd”) does not fit the meaning.^[3] Klein nevertheless derived it from that word of the Poitou dialect, from biste (“goat”), a guess Etymonline also reports.^[8][4] The American Heritage Dictionary takes it as possibly an alteration of bistringue, a popular dance and cheap liquor, a variant of bastringue (“music for the quadrille”), influenced by mastro, short for mastroquet (“tavern keeper”), probably from Dutch meesterke, a diminutive of meester (“master”).^[9] The Oxford Dictionary of English suggests a link with bistouille, a northern colloquial word for bad alcohol.^[10] The popular story that it comes from the Russian word for "quickly", picked up in Paris during the Allied occupation of 1815, is called unlikely by Etymonline,^[4] though Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English mention a Russian source as possible.^[11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small wine shop, bar or restaurant: Etymonline dates the English word to 1906,^[4] the OED's first quotation is from “Collier's” in 1918,^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1919,^[5] and Barnhart finds the spelling “bistrot” in 1922 and “bistro” in 1924.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has kept the French sense of a small, unpretentious restaurant or wine bar,^[5][2][11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records it for a small, often out-of-the-way bar with a very casual atmosphere.^[5]

Timeline

• 1906 – a small wine shop or restaurant.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1918, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1919.^[2][5]
• 1922 – the spelling “bistrot”, followed by “bistro” in 1924.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small or simple restaurant, bar or wine shop, especially one in Europe: We had lunch at a bistro near the station.^[5][2][11]
2. A small, informal bar or tavern serving drinks and often food.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins