cabaret

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cabaret (“tavern, tap-room”),^[2][3][4][5] a word recorded in French in the sense "tavern" from the 13th century,^[3] originally from the Walloon and Picard dialects.^[6][7][8] Its further origin is uncertain;^[3] the OED calls it unknown.^[2] Most dictionaries take it, probably, from Middle Dutch cabret, also cambret and cameret,^[5][4][3][6] a form without the nasal of cambret,^[8][9] from Picard camberete (“small room”), a diminutive of cambre (“room, chamber”),^[5][3][9] from Late Latin camera (“room”),^[4][5] the source also of chamber and camera.^[4][5] Partridge reports Dauzat's alternative derivation from an Arabic word for a place of refreshment.^[9] The Oxford Dictionary of English glosses the Old French word as "wooden structure", and Word Origins as "shed".^[10][11][12] Weekley called it of unknown origin, noting the suggestion of a Latin phrase for "ram's head", as an inn sign.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wooden dwelling, booth or shed, translating Latin taberna: 1632, in T. Hawkins's translation of P. Matthieu's Unhappy Prosperity; the OED suggests it was chosen because taberna is linked with tavern, or else is an error.^[2] The usual early sense, a drinking house, is recorded from 1655,^[5][14] in the OED from 1656, in Bramhall's dispute with Hobbes.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1625–35.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century a cabaret was a French inn: Pepys noted that in most of them "Dieu te regarde" was written on the walls.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a tavern, quoting Bramhall against Hobbes.^[15] The OED, in a text first published in 1888, called it by then almost entirely an alien word for French taverns, though formerly somewhat naturalized.^[2][3] From 1856 it also named a porcelain tea or coffee service, sometimes with a small table or tray.^[2][14] The modern sense of a restaurant or nightclub with entertainment came from French again in 1912,^[3][2] shortly before the First World War,^[12] and by 1918 the word meant the entertainment itself, the floor show;^[3] Barnhart dates that extension to the 1920s.^[5] A verb, to go to cabarets, is recorded from 1917,^[14] and in American drug slang of the 1950s to cabaret was to get extremely intoxicated.^[16]

Timeline

• 1632 – a wooden dwelling, booth or shed (obsolete).^[2]
• 1655 – a tavern, especially in France.^[5][14] The OED's first record is from 1656.^[2]
• 1856 – a porcelain tea or coffee service.^[2]
• 1912 – a restaurant or nightclub offering entertainment.^[2][3]
• 1917 – verb, to frequent cabarets.^[14]
• 1918 – the entertainment itself, a floor show.^[3]
• 1958 – verb, US drug slang, to get extremely intoxicated.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. Entertainment such as singing, dancing or comedy given in a nightclub or restaurant while the audience eats or drinks at tables: They stayed on for the midnight cabaret.^[17][11][2]
2. A nightclub or restaurant that offers such entertainment.^[17][14][11]
3. A porcelain tea, coffee or chocolate service with a tray, especially one made in the 18th century.^[14][2]
4. (archaic) A tavern or wine shop, especially in France.^[14][2][15]

Verb

1. To go to cabarets.^[14]

Related words

• chamber
• camera

Usage notes

The OED also records cabaret as an old name of the plant asarabacca, borrowed from French, first in Baret's Alvearie (1574).^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins