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FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bistro.

bistro

6 characters2 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

noun/bis.tʁo/
  1. bistro

    masculine
  2. proprietor of a bistro

    France · masculine · metonymically
Where this word comes from

The etymology is unclear; it is presumed to come from Poitevin-Saintongeais bistro, bistrot, bistingo, or bistraud (“lesser servant”), or bistouille, bistrouille, a colloquial term from the northern area of France for a mixture of brandy and coffee, the kind of beverage that could be served at a bistro. The first recorded use of the word appears in 1884, the next in 1892 ("bistrot"). A popular folk etymology of the word claims that it originated among Russian troops who occupied Paris following the Napoleonic Wars. In taverns they would shout the Russian бы́стро (býstro, “quickly”) to the waiters, so that "bistro" took on the meaning of a place where food was served quickly. This etymology is rejected, due to the 69 year gap between the proposed origin and the first attestation.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.