cabaret

Forms

cabaret m (plural cabarets)^[1] The first record is the spelling kabaret, in the phrase tenir kabaret (1275).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle Dutch cabaret (“inn, cheap eating house”), also found as caberet and cabret.^[2][4][3] The Middle Dutch word is a denasalized form of cambret (also cameret), which was borrowed from Old Picard camberete (“little room”) (about 1190), a diminutive of cambre (“chamber”), the counterpart of French chambrette.^[2][4][1] These words all go back to Latin camera.^[1][5] Rey suggests that the initial of cabane may have helped the denasalized form take hold in French.^[2]

Littré, in 1873, still called the origin unknown and rejected Ménage's derivation from Greek.^[6] Etymonline also presents the Middle Dutch source as likely rather than certain.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1275 in tenir kabaret “to keep an inn”, the word then meaning a modest inn or eating house.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries the word is found almost only in Picard and Walloon texts; it then spread south and gradually lost its first sense of an inn in France.^[2] From the 15th century some cabarets were places for drinking and gaming rather than eating, and this sense seems to prevail in the 17th century, when Furetière set cabaret apart from taverne, a place where one sat down to a meal.^[2] Once the café appeared, cabaret was left to small, modest, popular drinking places, and by 1842 Paul de Kock could write that Paris had no cabarets properly speaking left, only wine merchants.^[2] The cabaret de nuit, a small venue with a show where customers drink, grew with the establishments of Montmartre and Montparnasse in the early 20th century, modelled on 19th-century bohemian haunts such as Le Chat noir.^[2]

By metonymy the word named a tray or small table for serving tea, coffee or liqueurs (1694, cabaret de Chine), and then the service itself.^[2][8][9] In the French of the Antilles and of Quebec this became a tray for food and drink.^[2][1] In the French of Madagascar the word is used for a gathering where music is played.^[2]

English borrowed cabaret in the 1650s in the sense “tavern”, and again in 1912 for a restaurant or nightclub with entertainment.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Old Picard camberete “little room” is recorded.^[2]
• 1275 – First record, in tenir kabaret.^[2][3]
• 14th century – Bon cabaret i a “there is a good inn there”, in Baudouin de Sebourc.^[6]
• 1360–1370 – The derivative cabaretier “innkeeper” appears.^[2]
• 15th century – Froissart speaks of tavernes et cabarets in the army's camp, as plentiful as at Bruges or Brussels.^[6]
• 1650s – English borrows the word in the sense “tavern”.^[7]
• 1694 – Cabaret de Chine names a tray for serving tea or coffee.^[2]
• 1842 – Paul de Kock writes that Paris has no more cabarets properly speaking.^[2]
• 1912 – English borrows it again for a nightclub with entertainment.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A modest tavern or drinking place, where meals may also be served.^[9][8][3]
2. Pilier de cabaret: a regular of the cabaret, and by extension a drunkard.^[3][10]
3. A venue that puts on a show (songs, satire, revue) where customers can drink, dine or dance, a nightclub: Ils ont fini la soirée dans un cabaret de Pigalle.^[8][3][9]
4. (dated) A tray or small table holding a set of cups, glasses or liqueur bottles, and the set itself.^[8][3][9]
5. (Quebec, Louisiana) A tray for carrying food and drink.^[1][2]
6. (card games, obsolete) In the game of trinquette, three cards in sequence from the jack to the ace.^[9][6]

Word family

• cabaretier

Related words

• chambre
• chambrette
• Latin camera
• English cabaret

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has two minor homographs.^[3] Cabaret² (1538), the plant asaret (asarabacca), also cabaret des oiseaux, is an alteration of bacaret (1541) after cabaret “drinking place”, itself formed from the stem of Latin baccar, a plant name taken from Greek.^[9][2][3][4] Cabaret³ (1751), of obscure origin, is an old name of the chardonneret (goldfinch).^[3]

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 q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 135a
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse