Convince the barista! (Barista, barista, barista, barista

Who is a barista and what does he do?

Many people don’t know the name of the person who makes coffee. The profession of a barista is primarily a hobby, and not the main way of earning money. A person with invaluable experience and accumulated knowledge in working with coffee drinks can take a leading position among other personnel in establishments where coffee is served.

This job involves constantly communicating with people. Anyone, regardless of gender and age, can master it. In terms of their responsibilities, a barista is practically no different from a bartender, with the exception that they are engaged in the preparation of different drinks.

In some organizations, the girl barista is engaged not only in preparing coffee, but also in paying customers, which is explained by the lack of specialists.

Descriptor

The word descriptor (“describing”) is Latin. However, it came into our professional language from English, along with other coffee terms. This is a unit of description of the taste and aroma of coffee. With the help of descriptors, we divide the complex taste of a drink into its components and tell what it tastes like. For example, coffee from Brazil may have the descriptors “dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, caramel,” and we will describe coffee from Kenya with the words “raspberry, black currant, apple.”

Descriptors can tell you how one coffee differs from another and what spectrum of flavors you can taste. Such descriptions are found on coffee packs, and baristas also use them when talking about the taste of their drinks.

Historical background on the profession

The name of the profession comes from the Italian word barista, which means “the person behind the bar.” Italy is considered the birthplace of the profession. Since the invention of espresso machines, coffee shop owners have needed artisans to make and serve coffee.

This profession became popular in the 80s, when the owner of the American coffee chain Starbucks adopted the experience of making coffee drinks from Italian craftsmen. In each of his coffee shops there was a person who makes coffee, which caused a great sensation; many visitors appreciated the importance of such an employee.

It’s easy to decline barista or barista, but the norms of the Russian language are to use its initial form in all cases, because the word is a relatively new borrowing and the declension of the word barista is not included in dictionaries. Therefore, many are confused and do not know whether or not the form of this word is inclined or how to pronounce it correctly. There is no plural. The emphasis in the word barista falls on “and”.

Convince the barista!

Is the word bowed - barista? This is a more complicated question than “how to write a cappuccino?” or “how to pronounce latte or latte?” The author of the text you will read below is Denis Petrov. I have long wanted to raise this topic, and now, while collecting material, I came across an article that fully covers the topic, but is not written in a provocative manner (like Artemy Lebedev).

I often write a lot on coffee topics, and inevitably in these texts I have to mention people who brew coffee - baristas. I have inclined this word, I am inclined and will continue to incline, because of this I sometimes find myself drawn into battles. Sometimes I explain my point of view, sometimes I remain silent and write in my own way. I was lucky enough to ask Doctor of Philology, professor and very interesting lecturer Maxim Krongauz about this. Now I decided it was time to write this note and close the question.

The word "barista" is an Italian generic (that is, neither masculine nor feminine) noun. Modern Italian-Russian dictionaries suggest translating it as “bartender” or “barmaid”. The result of the translation can hardly be considered as a Russian word, because it is borrowed from the English language. The “bartender” easily and willingly bows down - “tell the bartender,” “ask the bartender.”

From Italian "barista" migrated to English, where it is still a countable noun of the general gender. Here is an excerpt from the dictionary of the authoritative publishing house Macmillan:

barista /bərˈistə/ noun [C] a person who works in a coffee bar

In English, nouns are not inflected. In principle, they are not inclined. The countability of baristas indicates the existence of a plural form and a completely legitimate changeability of this noun - one barista, many baristas.

Not very literate baristas in everyday speech copy the English word, give it a flair of romanticism and a touch of hipness, elevate it to the rank of iconic and are afraid to incline it so as not to bring trouble upon themselves. In our Russian language, there is no rule according to which nouns of the general gender are not declined. There are such exceptions in the masculine gender, but not in general.

Analogies are strong in language. The most similar word form of “profession” is “elder”. Also a noun, also of a general gender, because the headman can also be a young lady. It wouldn’t occur to you not to persuade the headman, would it? “Go and ask the headman for advice” - sounds strange, right? So it’s exactly the same with a barista. No one blushes when inclining an “accountant”, not a single “hairdresser” will get into a fight if he hears you inclining him or her (well, unless it’s a top stylist, of course).

There is only one conclusion from what has been said and it is very simple - there is no reason not to persuade the “barista”. It is surprising that professionals in the coffee industry, who should first of all fight for the rooting of the word, instead of achieving rapid adoption, strive for rejection. Let's speak Russian correctly, let's persuade the baristas! Professionals, join in and better not argue, otherwise I’ll find a dictionary of synonyms and start calling them “Chaldeans”!

What do you think? Is it possible to persuade a barista?

Author Notes

Denis Petrov

There are 8 comments

Add yours

Ivan on February 5, 2021 at 12:07 Reply
In fact, I don’t think it’s correct to compare “barista” and “hairdresser” or “elder”, since barista is not yet sufficiently ingrained in the Russian language... Taking a word from another language, pronouncing it in transliteration and inflecting it as consonant or similar... well, that’s it... you need enough deeply study its components, which was not in the article. I also didn’t go deep, so I won’t say that the article is incorrect. But personally, I am against declension, since it sounds corny and idiotic) “I want to be a barista” sounds about the same as “I want to be a sausage”)) a completely idiotic comparison, from the side of linguistic sciences, but it shows my attitude towards inclination of this profession)
- Coffee Patrol on February 6, 2021 at 23:52 Reply
  The phrase “I want to be a barista” also sounds a little strange :)
Andrey Chernov on February 25, 2021 at 10:29 Reply
This word has not yet been included in the list of philistine literate people (such as “coffee”, “lay down” is not allowed, etc.) so it must obey the rules of the Russian language, and not fall into the perversion words: metro, citro, coat, etc.
- Coffee Patrol on February 27, 2021 at 13:25 Reply
  Thanks for the emotional comment :)
Valentina on April 13, 2021 at 17:26 Reply
I don’t like the way the word “barista” sounds (as well as “accountant” or “hairdresser”). We don’t decline the word “fantasy”, for example...