Bartender

How to spell bartender

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce bartender

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bartender mean?

1. nounA person who mixes and serves drinks behind the counter of a bar or pub.

Bartender in a sentence

• The bartender poured two pints and slid them across the counter.

• She worked as a bartender to pay for her evening classes.

Where does bartender come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound word built entirely from older English parts, and it first appears in American English in the early to middle 1800s. The first element, 'bar', goes back through Old French 'barre' to a Late Latin 'barra', meaning a wooden rail or barrier; in a tavern the long counter that separated staff from customers came to be called the bar, and the name then spread to the whole drinking establishment. The second element comes from 'tend', a shortened form of 'attend', from Latin 'attendere' meaning 'to stretch toward' or 'to give heed to'; someone who tends a thing looks after it. Joined with the agent suffix '-er', a 'bartender' is literally the person who looks after the bar. The word is a clean, transparent compound, which is why the spelling rarely trips people: bar plus tender, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to negotiate.

How the word is built

• bar (drinks counter)
• tend (to attend, serve)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)