baristi
- 1Plural of barista.
The café's baristi rotated between the espresso machine and the register all morning.
During the rush, three baristi worked side by side without a break.
Note
Borrowed whole from Italian, where baristi is the masculine plural of barista. In English it sheds that gender. Sandra Balzo's Uncommon Grounds (2004) observes that baristi come in both genders. Fresh Cup in 2003 counts the Icelandic Asa Jelena Petterson among the top two baristi on the planet. The plural is at home in specialty-coffee writing, especially around championships and the trade's best practitioners.
- 2Plural of baristo. Nonstandard; the usual plural of barista is baristas.
The roastery employs four baristi who also handle wholesale orders.
Behind the counter, the baristi joked with regulars between orders.
Note
A plural resting on a shaky singular: baristo, a hypercorrect, nonstandard coinage for a specifically male barista. Adding the Italian -i to its -o ending produces exactly the spelling of the ordinary plural of barista. A reader who sees baristi cannot tell which singular lies behind it. Because baristo itself is nonstandard, careful writers avoid building on it and simply use the plural of barista for staff of any gender.
baristi is a form of barista
barista, noun: A person who prepares and serves coffee drinks in a coffee shop. Full entry
- Spelling
- barista → baristi: irregular plural (no -s)
Use it in a sentence
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Origins
This is formed with the Italian suffix -i, the plural ending for nouns ending in -o.
This comes from Italian baristi, the masculine plural of barista.