cafetería

Forms

cafetería f (plural cafeterías)^[1]

Etymology

The DHLE considers it probably a calque from French caffeterie, recorded in French from 1730 in Labat's account of a voyage to Guinea and Cayenne, for a place planted with coffee trees.^[2] The DLE treats it as formed in Spanish, from Spanish cafetera + -ía, and Wiktionary as a shortened form of that noun with the suffix -ería.^[3][1]

The modern sense owes something to the English word cafeteria: Santamaría wrote in 1942 that American English formed the word and that it came back into Spanish through Mexico, and the Tesoro of Puerto Rico treats the word as an adapted Anglicism.^[2][4] Etymonline in turn derives the English word, recorded from 1839, from the Mexican Spanish word in the sense “coffee store”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1773, in a London report of 8 December 1772 printed in the Gazeta de Madrid, for a plot of land planted with coffee trees; this sense lasted only through the 18th and 19th centuries.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1805, in the Diario de México, it names a shop where coffee is sold, often roasted and ground, and drinks are taken; this sense is found in Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Chile, and Pichardo's Cuban dictionary of 1849 records it.^[2] A text from Havana of 1817 glosses cafeterías as “coffee rooms”.^[6] Alemany in 1917 and Malaret in 1946 still described it as a shop selling coffee retail, and Malaret also as a place where coffee is roasted and ground.^[7][8]

The sense “place where coffee and other drinks and food are served” appears in 1867, in R. Sans's account of a visit to the Holy Land, but it long sounded odd: in 1872 A. Pascual called it extravagant beside café.^[2] In 1930 T. de Escoriaza described New York cafeterias as bars with stools and no tables, which were not cafés at all.^[2] The self-service sense is recorded in 1921, in El Imparcial of Madrid, and is no longer current.^[2] The CDH's hits begin in 1945, in an ABC advertisement for the Cafetería Macías.^[9] In Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua it is a modest restaurant.^[10][2]

Timeline

• 1773 – first record, for a coffee plantation, in the Gazeta de Madrid.^[2]
• 1805 – a shop selling coffee, in the Diario de México.^[2]
• 1817 – cafeterías in Havana.^[6]
• 1839 – the English word cafeteria is recorded in American English.^[5]
• 1849 – Pichardo's Cuban dictionary records the shop sense.^[2]
• 1867 – an establishment where coffee, drinks and food are served.^[2]
• 1921 – the self-service sense, in El Imparcial.^[2]
• 1942 – Santamaría's dictionary of Americanisms records the modern senses.^[2]
• 2001 – Gómez de Silva records the Mexican sense “modest restaurant”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A café, coffee shop: a place where coffee, other drinks and light meals are served.^[3][1]
2. (in some countries) A cafeteria, where customers serve themselves.^[3][1]
3. (Mexico, Central America) A modest restaurant, a diner.^[10][1]
4. (historical) A plantation of coffee trees (cafetos).^[2]

Related words

• café
• cafetera
• cafetero
• English cafeteria

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. cafetería
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cafetería
4. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. cafetería
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. cafeteria
6. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cafetería
7. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 297
8. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 186
9. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cafetería
10. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cafetería