tavern

From Middle English taverne, from Old French taverne (“wine shop”), from Latin taberna (“inn”). Doublet of taberna and taverna.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtævən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtævəɹn/
• Rhymes: -ævə(ɹ)n
• Hyphenation: tav‧ern

tavern (plural taverns)

1. (dated) A building containing a bar licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, and offering sleeping accommodations for travelers.

   Synonyms: inn; see also Thesaurus:pub

   • c. 1590 (date written), [John Lyly], Mother Bombie. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii:

     I maruell I heare no nevves of Dromio, either hee ſlackes the matter, or betraies his Maiſter, I dare not motion anie thing to Stellio, till I knovv vvhat my boy hath don, Ile hunt him out, if the loiterſacke be gone ſpringing into a Tauerne, Ile fetch him reeling out.

   • 1859, Omar Khayyam, “(please specify the quatrain number in uppercase Roman numerals)”, in [Edward FitzGerald], transl., Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. […], facsimile edition, London: Bernard Quaritch, […], →OCLC, page 1:

     Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky / I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, / "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup / Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 46:

     At half-past nine on this Saturday evening the parlor of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for the select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 201:

     At one of the way-stations on his long journey a barmaid at a tavern speaks to Gilgamesh and tries to give him common sense on the human condition.

2. A restaurant or bar.

• “tavern”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “tavern”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “tavern”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

tavern

1. Alternative form of taverne