Etymology

café au lait

Today it means: Coffee mixed with hot milk as a drink; white coffee; (countable) a serving of this. Full definition →

French cafés au lait
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromcafés au lait
  2. English todaycafé au lait

Unadapted borrowing from French café au lait (“(noun) coffee with milk; light brown colour of this drink; (adjective) having the light brown colour of coffee with milk”), from café (“coffee”) + au (“with the”) + lait (“milk”). The noun plural form cafés au lait is also an unadapted borrowing from French cafés au lait.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.