Etymology

espresso

es·pres·so
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Today it means: A concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee. Full definition →

Italian espresso ← Latin exprimere
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromexprimere
  2. Italian · borrowed fromespresso
  3. English todayespresso

Borrowed from Italian espresso, from caffè espresso (“pressed-out coffee”), form of esprimere (“to press out”), from Latin exprimere, from ex- (“out”) + primere (“to press”). Some sources derive the term from "expressly" ("individually, directly") made for the customer, or from the Italian espresso ("fast"), as in the English word express ("fast"), although these explanations are not widely accepted. The original term for modern espresso (coffee extracted under pressure) was cream coffee, from Italian caffè crema (variant: crema caffè), due to the crema, and appeared on early Gaggia machines, but this term is no longer used.

Words from the same roots

Italianespresso all →

Latinexprimere all →

expresssprain

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.