Today's Word "Cappuccino"
Published in Vocabulary
cappuccino \kae-peh-CHI-no\ (noun) - Espresso coffee served with milk.
"Jeff was the sort who liked to start his day with cappuccino, though on the way to work, it was probably better to have a biscotto with it than 'Death by Chocolate.'"
Italian cappuccino referring to the Capuchin monks of the Order of St. Francis (of Assisi), so called because they wear a capuchin or cappuccio "hood, cowl" that is a part of their brown habit, brown being the color of cappuccino. The name of the capuchin monkey, with a black tuft of hair resembling a cowl on their heads, shares the same origin. Cappuccio comes from Late Latin cap(p)a "outer garment" from which we derive both "cap" and "cape," originally a long cloak with a hood. "Cappuccino" is a mass noun, which means it should have no plural. However, the English language permits mass nouns to be used in the plural in a specific sense, "a serving of X," so that "two cappuccinos" in English is the semantic equivalent of "two cups of cappuccino." Compare this with "two sugars," "three waters," "four beers," etc.
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