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