Wait, so does it refer to American as in USA or belonging to the western hemisphere? I’m asking this as someone who doesn’t live in the Americas and don’t drink coffee at all and didn’t know the term before reading this post.
There is a popular belief that the name has its origins in World War II when American G.I.s in Italy diluted espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee to which they were accustomed.[9] However, the Oxford English Dictionary cites the term as a borrowing from Central American Spanishcafé americano, a derisive term for mild coffee dating to the middle of the 1950s.
Just looked up Google Ngrams to see if I’m right and I am. “Caffè americano” took off in Italian much later than “Café americano” in Spanish. That people think it was used in Italy in WWII doesn’t mean that is was.
I mean, Google Ngrams is written language so slower than the spoken one. The point is more that Spanish < Italian.
But if your mom or who ever telling you this is a greater authority than a company analyzing data with no agenda in this case, than that’s ok too. But maybe I’m misreading the graphs. The Italian one has kind of a peak in 1921 but a bigger one in 1814. It only goes above those random peaks around 2000 in Italian and Spanish looks less random to me before that.
Wait, so does it refer to American as in USA or belonging to the western hemisphere? I’m asking this as someone who doesn’t live in the Americas and don’t drink coffee at all and didn’t know the term before reading this post.
It refers to the US (American) servicemen stationed in Italy during WWII.
According to the link in my parent comment, I quoted in my first comment, it doesn’t but what do I know
Yeah but 1950s > WWII so
Bonus points: what was the lemon peel for?
Just looked up Google Ngrams to see if I’m right and I am. “Caffè americano” took off in Italian much later than “Café americano” in Spanish. That people think it was used in Italy in WWII doesn’t mean that is was.
I suppose if Google is the authority and “taking off” means . . what, 1980? Then yeah.
I don’t agree, but that’s okay too.
I mean, Google Ngrams is written language so slower than the spoken one. The point is more that Spanish < Italian.
But if your mom or who ever telling you this is a greater authority than a company analyzing data with no agenda in this case, than that’s ok too. But maybe I’m misreading the graphs. The Italian one has kind of a peak in 1921 but a bigger one in 1814. It only goes above those random peaks around 2000 in Italian and Spanish looks less random to me before that.
Damn you do love the googlez don’t ya.
Hey - follow your bliss, as they say.