Bistro

How to spell bistro

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bistro

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bistro mean?

1. nounA small, informal restaurant or wine bar serving modestly priced food.

Bistro in a sentence

• They booked a corner table at the new bistro near the station.

• The bistro on the high street serves a fixed lunch menu on weekdays.

Where does bistro come from?

Language of origin: French

The word bistro entered English from French in the early twentieth century, where un bistro (also spelled bistrot) named a small, modest restaurant or wine bar serving simple, hearty food. The origin of the French word itself is genuinely disputed. A popular and charming story claims it comes from the Russian word bystro, meaning 'quickly', shouted by Russian soldiers occupying Paris in 1814 to demand fast service; this tale is widely repeated but cannot be supported by the dates, since the French word is not recorded until much later in the nineteenth century. More sober suggestions trace it to French dialect words such as bistraud, a term for a servant or a small wine merchant, or to bistrouille, a rough cheap drink. Because the exact path is uncertain, the safest summary is simply that English took the word wholesale from French. The single -s- and the unexpected final -o (where English ears might expect -eau) are the main reasons the spelling can trip a writer up.

How the word is built

• bistro (a single unanalysable borrowing; no separable prefix or suffix in English)