restaurateur

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowing from French restaurateur.

Noun

restaurateur (plural restaurateurs)

  1. The owner of a restaurant.

Usage notes

This is also spelled restauranteur (with an ‘n’), but this is considered erroneous by some, and the form restaurateur (without the ‘n’) is preferred in formal writing, and especially in the United Kingdom.[1]

The form restaurateur (without the ‘n’) is the earlier form, borrowed from French, while the form restauranteur (with an ‘n’) = restaurant + -eur (“(agent) one who”) is a later formation, from Anglicized forms, and thus seen by some as an etymological error.

However, restauranteur is widely used, and can be found in formal British writing.[2]

Translations

owner of a restaurant

References

  1. ^ restaurateur, restauranteur (nn.), Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 1993
  2. ^ See for instance Me and my travels: Raymond Blanc, restauranteur, in The Guardian and The Observer, 2008–10–12
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French

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʁɛs.tɔ.ʁa.tœʁ/, X-SAMPA: /REs.tO.Ra.t9R/

Etymology 1

From Late Latin restaurator.

Noun

restaurateur m (plural restaurateurs; feminine restauratrice, plural restauratrices)

  1. restorer (of a work of art)

Etymology 2

restaurer +‎ -ateur

Noun

restaurateur m (plural restaurateurs; feminine restauratrice, plural restauratrices)

  1. restaurateur, restaurant owner
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Last modified on 27 April 2013, at 02:14