In view of our shared interest in words, beer and food, I'm disappointed in you Brits for not bringing to our attention a term that combines the subjects dear to our hearts. I had to learn of it from an article, in today's local paper, which began thus:
Gastropub, the funny word Brits use to describe pubs serving upscale, casual food, sounds like a cross between a less-than-sexy medical specialty and a neighborhood beer joint. Perhaps that's why the term – a melding of the words "gastronomy" and "pub" – is having trouble sticking on this side of the pond, despite the growth of local taverns serving better beer with better food.
The gastropub trend started in the early 1900s in London when young chefs began buying old pubs and serving elevated fare designed to go with the beer. … The term "gastropub," however, was … coined in the mid-'90s by a London magazine.
Wow, I found over 400,000 sites for this word on Google, and it will become common here in the U.S. soon, I am sure. Here is an example of its "Americanized" use here.
quote: it will become common here in the U.S. soon, I am sure.
Google-news give 46 news hits in the last month, but the UK hits are artificially inflated by recent news that gastropubs are causing the demise of the dear old game of darts, and of Prince Charles' rush to the rescue. The breakdown is:
12 UK dart-related 12 other UK, 9 NY City metropolitan area 13 rest of the US 1 Canada
In these dart stories, I picked up a nice new word: oche: the line behind which darts players stand when throwing
"Darts may not be glamorous, but it's worth defending the oche as it gets smothered by the spread of the gastropub." Guardian Unlimited, March 9, 2007
Oche is an interesting word, wordnerd. It seems to be only in the COED of the online dictionaries, besides the specialty ones, like Worthless Word for the Day, and such. The COED says it perhaps comes from the Old French word ocher, meaning to ‘cut a notch in’.
As Arnie said, the term "gastropub" is primarily used by the media or sometimes by those kinds of pubs themselves as a promotional device. I consider it a rather pompous and unnecessary term.
Here, if we wanted to know the whereabouts of a pub that served especially good food, we would probably ask simply for that, "...Is there a pub near here that does decent food...?" To ask for the location of the nearest "gastropub" would certainly give rise to a quizzical expression or even a look of blank incomprehension.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Richard is absolutely right and I think he'd probably agree with me that most of us would run a mile to get away from anywhere calling itself a "gastropub". What that word says to me is that the owner has delusions of grandeur and that the food is likely to be small portions of overpriced and over-fancy food served in an establishment where they'd rather sell me wine than beer (though most likely with a couply of poorly kept and insanely priced real ales on as well just so they can claim to be "traditional" - something they most certainly are not.)
The word is no more than a modern publicist's invention.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
What that word says to me is that the owner has delusions of grandeur and that the food is likely to be small portions of overpriced and over-fancy food served in an establishment where they'd rather sell me wine than beer (though most likely with a couply of poorly kept and insanely priced real ales on as well just so they can claim to be "traditional" - something they most certainly are not.)
Funny, because the word itself sounds rather clinical to me and certainly not "over-fancy."
I had to learn of it from an article, in today's local paper, which began thus:
