Espresso

How to spell espresso

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce espresso

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does espresso mean?

1. nounA strong black coffee made by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans.

Espresso in a sentence

• She ordered a double espresso before the morning meeting.

• The new machine pulls a rich espresso in under thirty seconds.

Where does espresso come from?

Language of origin: Italian

Espresso comes directly from Italian, where caffè espresso meant coffee that is 'pressed out', made on demand for the individual drinker. The word traces back to the Latin exprimere, formed from ex 'out' and premere 'to press', literally 'to press out', because the brew is forced through finely ground coffee under steam pressure. The same Latin root sits behind the English word 'express', and that family resemblance is exactly what tempts people to insert an x and write 'expresso'. The Italian, however, has no x: it keeps the s of espresso, reflecting the way the drink is squeezed out rather than sent off in a hurry. The word entered English in the early twentieth century as Italian-style coffee bars spread, and it became common in everyday use as café culture grew after the 1950s.

How the word is built

• es- (out)
• press (to press, squeeze out)
• -o (Italian noun ending)