restaurant

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɹɛs.t(ə.)ɹɒnt/, /ˈɹɛs.t(ə.)ɹɒ̃/ (UK); /ˈɹɛs.t(əˌ)ɹɑnt/, /ˈɹɛs.t(ə.)ɹənt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French restaurant (“a restaurant”), originally “food that restores”, a noun use of the present participle of restaurer (“to restore, refresh”),^[2][3][4] from Old French restorer,^[2][3] from Latin restaurāre.^[4] It is related to restore and restaurateur.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An eating-house where meals may be bought and eaten: by 1806 in a French context in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster;^[2][4] 1827 in the OED and Barnhart, in Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The French sense of a public dining room is said to have begun in Paris about 1765, with an establishment serving chiefly restorative soups;^[3][2] an 18th-century French account names its founder as one Boulanger, whose sign parodied a biblical verse with “I will restore you”.^[2] Before that, the usual English word for a public place to eat was tavern.^[3] Restaurateur is from 1796, in Burke.^[3] The restaurant car on a train is from 1875.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1765 – the first Paris restaurants.^[3][2]
• 1796 – restaurateur.^[3]
• 1806 – in a French context.^[2][4]
• 1827 – in English use.^[5][3]
• 1875 – restaurant car.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A place where meals are prepared and served to the public.

Word family

• restaurateur
• Chinese restaurant syndrome
• restaurant car

Related words

• restore
• restoration
• tavern
• cafe

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press