kiosk

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkiːˌɒsk/ (UK); /ˈkiˌɑsk/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French kiosque,^[2][3][4] from Turkish köşk “pavilion”,^[2][3][5][4] from Persian kūshk “palace, villa, portico”.^[3][5][4] American Heritage traces it further to Middle Persian gōshak “corner”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first named an open, lightly built pavilion or summerhouse of Turkey and Persia, imitated in European gardens.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In France and Belgium the word was applied to similar small structures used as newsstands or bandstands, and English took over this sense in 1865.^[2][3][6] The British telephone kiosk (1928) influenced the modern sense,^[3][6] and the word now also covers a public computer terminal.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 1625 – an open pavilion.^[2][6][5]
• 1865 – a newsstand or similar booth.^[3][6]
• 1928 – a telephone kiosk.^[3][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small booth, often open on one side, selling newspapers, tickets or refreshments.
2. A cylindrical pillar for posting advertisements.
3. A public computer terminal or automatic ticket machine.
4. (British) A telephone booth.
5. An open pavilion of a kind common in Turkey and Iran.

Related words

• gazebo
• pavilion

References

1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press