bar Italian · revision 38466

+ {{homograph|1|café, bar}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1892|origins=fro barre}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈbar/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''bar''' ''m''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The café is [[bor|en|bar]], literally “barrier, rail”, from the rail that separated customers from the counter, then the counter itself, and finally the whole establishment.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011) GRADIT dates this sense of the English word to 1592, and traces the English word to [[fro|barre|t=barrier, bar]].^(GRADIT 2003)^(GDLI|2, 47) Before the drinking counter, the English rail was the bar dividing a court of justice.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ Prati, Zingarelli and Gabrielli bring the Italian word through [[fr|bar]], recorded in French from 1861.^(Prati 1951|109)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020) The word is a doublet of [[barra]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the word to 1892, when Garollo's dictionary listed it as an English word for a counter selling drinks.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Prati 1951|109) DELI's first Italian record is 1897, in the sense “public place where coffee, liquor and soft drinks are served, mostly at the counter”.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In 1926 Rigutini and Cappuccini called it “an exotic name, spread from England and America together with the new kind of shop it designates”, and that year the authorities declined to replace it, since ''taverna'' named a different kind of place;^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI|2, 47) Tuscany's ''mescita'' was by then kept almost only for wine shops.^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI|2, 47) Purists proposed ''barra'' and ''barro'' instead, without success, and Tuscan had the adapted form ''barre''.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|427) The foreign plural ''bars'' has dropped out.^(GDLI|2, 47)

+

+ The sense “cabinet for drinks at home” is recorded from 1941.^(DELI 1999) ''Barman'' is recorded from 1908 and ''barista'', the person who serves at the counter, from 1926.^(Nocentini 2010) The phrases ''chiacchiere da bar'' (idle bar talk) and ''bar Sport'' (the bar where fans talk football, and by extension any place of idle chatter) treat the bar as the home of small talk.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1892 – Garollo's dictionary lists ''bar'' as an English word.^(Prati 1951|109)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1897 – DELI's first Italian record.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1908 – ''Barman'' is recorded.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1926 – The authorities decide not to replace the word, ''barista'' is recorded.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1941 – The sense “drinks cabinet” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|café]] or bar, a public place where coffee, drinks and snacks are served, mostly at the counter: ''Ci vediamo al bar sotto l’ufficio.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A cabinet for keeping drinks at home (''mobile bar'').^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(as an adjective)'' Serving as a bar: ''il servizio bar del treno''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[barista]]

+ * [[barman]]

+ * [[baretto]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|unit of pressure}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing, coinage|attested=1930|origins=grc βάρος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈbar/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''bar''' ''m''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The unit is an international scientific word, coined in 1906 by the Norwegian physicist and meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes in a German publication, together with the units for a tenth, a hundredth and a thousandth of it.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) He based it on [[grc|βάρος|tr=báros|t=weight]], already linked with air pressure in the word [[barometro]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli derive it from the adjective [[m|grc|βαρύς|tr=barús|t=heavy]].^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI and Nocentini date the Italian word to the ''Enciclopedia italiana'' of 1930;^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) GRADIT and Devoto–Oli give 1955, and Sabatini–Coletti 1846, a date earlier than the coinage DELI describes.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The bar was first defined in the centimetre–gram–second system, as a megabarye.^(GDLI|2, 48)^(Treccani 2011) Today it equals 100,000 pascals, and its submultiple, the millibar, is the unit of weather maps.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1906 – Bjerknes coins the word.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1930 – The ''Enciclopedia italiana'' uses it.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(physics, meteorology)'' A unit of [[m|en|pressure]] equal to 100,000 pascals, a little less than one atmosphere.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[millibar]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[barra]]

+ * [[barometro]]

+ * [[en|bar]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The word is invariable: ''un bar'', ''due bar''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) DEI also lists ''bar'' for the crossbar of a football goal, from English, and an obsolete ''bar'', a unit of weight which Giovanni da Empoli used in 1515, borrowed through Portuguese from Persian.^(DEI|427)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}