cappuccino

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian cappuccino (“Capuchin”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the name of the Capuchin friars, given to the drink because its colour was thought to resemble that of a Capuchin's habit.^{[4][5][6][2][7]} Chambers calls the link with the colour of the gown only probable.^[8] The friars took their name from the long pointed cowl of their habit,^[9][10] Italian cappuccio (“hood”),^[9][10] itself formed from cappa (“cape”),^[11][2] from Late Latin cappa (“hood”), the source of cap and cape.^[10] The same Italian word, through French, gave English capuchin.^[9][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coffee with milk, especially espresso topped with white foam: 1948, in R. O'Brien's This is San Francisco.^[3][2][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives a much earlier first known use, 1893,^[5] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1945–50.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The American Heritage Dictionary presents the word as an example of a name extended through a resemblance that its first users could not have foreseen: the Capuchin order, founded after 1525, was named from its pointed hood; the order's name was later given to a monkey with a tuft of cowl-like hair, first recorded in English in 1785; and in Italian the word went on to name the coffee because of its colour.^[9] Ayto likewise describes the habit as the colour of coffee with a little milk.^[10] In English the word has meant both the drink and a cup of it since its first record.^[3][4] Collins notes that it is sometimes served with whipped cream or powdered chocolate,^[12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged that it is often flavoured with cinnamon.^[5] Chambers gives the Italian plural cappuccini beside cappuccinos.^[8]

Timeline

• 1948 – espresso coffee topped with frothed milk; also a cup of it.^[3][2][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1893.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Espresso coffee topped with steamed or frothed milk, sometimes sprinkled with cinnamon or powdered chocolate.^{[4][5][12][3]}
2. A cup of this drink: Two cappuccinos and a croissant, please.^[4][5][3]

Related words

• capuchin
• cap
• cape
• espresso

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
9. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins