Pub

How to spell pub

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pub

What does pub mean?

1. nounA licensed establishment, especially in Britain, where alcoholic drinks and often meals are served.

Pub in a sentence

• The village pub serves a roast dinner every Sunday.

• After work they walked to the pub for a quiet pint.

Where does pub come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Pub is a clipped, informal shortening of 'public house', a phrase that became common in Britain in the 1700s for a building licensed to sell beer and other drink to the general public. The 'public' element traces back to the Latin publicus, meaning 'belonging to the people' or 'open to all', which entered English through French in the late medieval period. The short form 'pub' itself is first recorded in the middle of the nineteenth century, when speakers casually trimmed the longer term in the same way 'bicycle' became 'bike' or 'omnibus' became 'bus'. The single short syllable kept the word easy to say and write, which is why the clipped form quickly overtook the full phrase in everyday speech. Today it is one of the most recognisable British words worldwide, even though it began life as nothing more than a lazy abbreviation.

How the word is built

• pub (a shortening of 'public house', from Latin publicus 'belonging to the people'
• Old English hus 'house')