espresso

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian espresso, short for caffè espresso,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the adjective espresso, pressed out, the past participle of esprimere (“to press out”),^[3][4][5][7] from Latin exprimō (“to press out, squeeze out”),^[4][5][7] formed from ex- (“out”) and premō (“to press”),^[5] which is also the source of express.^[7][4] The name refers to the coffee being made by forcing hot water or steam under pressure through the ground beans.^[7][4][2] The OED notes that in Italian espresso also meant done quickly, and that the coffee's name later became associated with the idea of speedy preparation;^[2] Merriam-Webster instead takes the name as probably meaning coffee made on the spot at the customer's request.^[8] The longer phrase caffè espresso appears in English from 1866, before its first record in Italian (1898),^[2] and the Italian short form is recorded before 1908.^[2] The variant expresso is probably influenced by the adjective express.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Strong coffee made by forcing nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground beans: 1919, in a Kansas newspaper, the Courier-Democrat.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline give 1945,^[3][4] Dictionary.com 1940–45,^[9] and Merriam-Webster 1955.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in Britain and the United States after the Second World War, when Barnhart and Etymonline first record it.^[3][4] By 1949 an espresso could also be a café or bar where such coffee was sold, a use the OED now calls rare,^[2][10] and since 1952 the machine that makes it.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster also has the sense of a single cup of the coffee.^[8] The spelling expresso is recorded alongside it in the Shorter Oxford, the New Oxford Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.^[10][11][8]

Timeline

• 1866 – caffè espresso in English.^[2]
• 1919 – espresso, the coffee.^[2]
• 1945 – the first record in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][4]
• 1949 – a café or bar selling espresso.^[2]
• 1952 – a machine for making espresso.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Strong, concentrated coffee made by forcing steam or nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground beans.^[6][8][2]
2. A cup of this coffee: Two espressos and a croissant, please.^[8]
3. A machine for making this coffee.^[6][8][2]
4. A café or bar where it is served (now rare).^[2][10][8]

Related words

• express
• expression
• press

Usage notes

The spelling expresso is recorded as a less common variant by Merriam-Webster and the Oxford dictionaries.^[8][10][11] The OED attributes it to the influence of English express.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press