Etymologically
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ristorante

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 21:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ris.toˈran.te/[1]

Forms

ristorante m (plural ristoranti)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French restaurant, the present participle of restaurer (“to restore”) used as a noun, given the form of the Italian participle of ristorare.[2][3][4][5][6] Zingarelli, Gabrielli, the GDLI and Devoto call it a calque on the French word, and Wiktionary describes it as the noun use of the Italian participle.[7][8][9][10][1] Both verbs go back to Latin restaurō (“to renew, repair”), whose Italian outcome had narrowed to “to give back strength, to feed”.[2][3]

The French name belonged to the first such establishment, opened in Paris in 1765, which served broths, poultry and grapes but not the stews of the ordinary eating house.[11][12] The French form itself was also used in Italy in the 19th century, and railway stations displayed ristoratore, from French restaurateur.[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Zingarelli and DIFIT date the word to 1798, in the letters of Giovanni Battista Casti;[4][7][13][2][3][5] DELI, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli give 1877, the dictionary of Fanfani and Arlìa, as the first record of the sense “public place where meals are served”.[4][7][13][2][3][5] As late as 1872 Tommaseo's dictionary knew ristorante only as a participle and as a noun for a food or drink that restores strength.[2][14]

Semantic evolution

The purist Costantino Arlìa grumbled that the word was the French restaurant pure and simple, but let it pass: since eating restores the body's strength, the place where one is restored may well be named after it.[9] Placed after another noun it describes a place that also serves meals: vagone ristorante “dining car” is recorded in 1936 in Emilio Cecchi, and albergo ristorante and caffè ristorante are common.[2][4][5] A ristorante is usually ranked above a trattoria or an osteria.[5][9] The diminutive is ristorantino.[7][15]

English borrowed ristorante in 1925 for an Italian restaurant, and German uses Ristorante in the same way.[13]

Timeline

  • 1765 – The first restaurant opens in Paris.[11][12]
  • 1798 – Giovanni Battista Casti uses ristorante in his letters.[4][13]
  • 1872 – Tommaseo still records only “restorative food or drink”.[2]
  • 1877 – Fanfani and Arlìa record ristorante “eating house”.[2][3]
  • 1925 – English ristorante is first recorded.[13]
  • 1936 – Emilio Cecchi writes vagone ristorante.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A restaurant: a public establishment where full meals are cooked and served at table: Per l'anniversario abbiamo prenotato in un ristorante sul lago.[4][5][6]

Adjective

  1. (invariable, after a noun) Offering a restaurant service: carrozza ristorante, albergo ristorante.[4][5][15]

Word family

  • ristorantino

Usage notes

Ristorante is also, rarely, the present participle of ristorare “restoring, reviving”;[4][7] GRADIT marks this use obsolete.[4][7] Manzoni speaks of the coppa ristorante, the reviving cup that the ancients offered to a man condemned to torture.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  9. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3265
  13. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana