What would be a good Latin word for waiter or waitress in a restaurant? I would not call them servus; I find the word inappropriate when not referring to slaves. Servitor/servitrix would be more neutral, but also minister/ministra looks suitable. I also came across dapifer (from daps+ferre), and it became my favorite translation the moment I saw it despite being rare. Which word(s) would you suggest and why? Is there a canonical translation?
Asked
Active
Viewed 786 times
9
-
See the meta discussion about tagging translation questions. – Joonas Ilmavirta Apr 02 '17 at 21:35
-
Ancilla ? for waitress. Was it a dapifer who swopped accounts of dreams with Joseph in prison? – Hugh Apr 03 '17 at 00:53
-
in Romanian we use servitor in a similar sense. – Valugi Apr 03 '17 at 08:54
4 Answers
4
In a smaller restaurant, caupo would be very appropriate, particularly if it's a family business. Another word which was certainly used in Antiquity was simply puer (see Sense B.2 in L&S).
But if we were to use a term to describe the job out of context (say, writing it in a curriculum vitae, for instance) I'd probably go for dapifer as you wrote.
Wtrmute
- 1,226
- 10
- 11
4
I suggest pincerna (Thanks to the comment of @Hugh, I found this word in the Vulgata in the Joseph-in-prison scene.)
Sir Cornflakes
- 2,307
- 1
- 14
- 36
2
There are a lot of good answers here, but the one I like best is in the OP's question, minister and ministra.
It is true that minister has a somewhat broader meaning than "waiter", but if you are in a restaurant setting, I don't think there will be any ambiguity. I also note that John Traupman's dictionary lists minister when you look up "waiter" in the English-to-Latin section.
Figulus
- 4,579
- 1
- 7
- 22
1
For a definitively medieval flavour I suggest another word buticularius (the source of the modern English word "butler". The word buticularius is AFAIK not attested for the Classical period.
Sir Cornflakes
- 2,307
- 1
- 14
- 36