tavern

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtævən/

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtævɚn/
• Rhymes: -ævə(ɹ)n
• Hyphenation: tav‧ern

tavern (plural taverns)

1. (dated) A building containing a bar licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, and usually offering accommodation.

   Synonyms: inn; see also Thesaurus:pub

   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, 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 16832619, 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.

• tavernous

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

tavern

1. Alternative form of taverne