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barista

UK/bəˈɹiːs.tə/US/bəˈɹis.tə/
nounB1+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,099 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: baristas

A barista is the person who makes coffee behind the counter. Grinding, tamping, steaming, and pouring a pattern on the top.

The job is more skilled than it looks, since the grind, the dose and the extraction time all have to be adjusted through the day as the beans and the humidity change. The word is Italian and simply means bartender there, which surprises people. The plural is baristas in English. Latte art is the visible skill and the least important part of it.

Liz Clayton · CC BY 3.0

Definitions of barista

  1. 1nounbaristaA person who prepares and serves coffee in a café.B1+

    “The barista remembered his order after two visits.”

Where it comes from

Barista is an English word that went to Italy and came back. Italian took bar from English and added its own -ista, the equivalent of -ist, and English then borrowed the result.

  1. English

    bar

  2. Italian

    barista — bartender

  3. English, today

    barista

Built from

  • -ista · Italian — -ist

Borrowed from Italian barista (“bartender”) literally “barist”, from bar (from English bar) + -ista (“-ist”); compare barman.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Restaurant & Cafe

First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

barista in the wild

  • The World Barista Championship (WBC) is an annual barista competition operated by World Coffee Events for the title of World Barista Champion.

    World Barista Championship

  • The United States Barista Championship (USBC) is an annual American coffee-brewing competition designed to evaluate baristas on their skills in espresso-based drink preparation and service.

    United States Barista Championship

  • An espresso cart is a food cart from which a barista can make espresso.

    Monorail Espresso

  • The film follows five baristas, as they prepare for the 2013 United States Barista Championship.

    Barista (film)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.