What would be a good Latin word for waiter or waitress in a restaurant? I would not call them servus; I find the word inappropriate when not referring to slaves. Servitor/servitrix would be more neutral, but also minister/ministra looks suitable. I also came across dapifer (from daps+ferre), and it became my favorite translation the moment I saw it despite being rare. Which word(s) would you suggest and why? Is there a canonical translation?
asked Apr 2, 2017 at 21:33
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See the meta discussion about tagging translation questions.– Joonas Ilmavirta ♦Commented Apr 2, 2017 at 21:35
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Ancilla ? for waitress. Was it a dapifer who swopped accounts of dreams with Joseph in prison?– HughCommented Apr 3, 2017 at 0:53
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in Romanian we use servitor in a similar sense.– ValugiCommented Apr 3, 2017 at 8:54
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4 Answers
In a smaller restaurant, caupo would be very appropriate, particularly if it's a family business. Another word which was certainly used in Antiquity was simply puer (see Sense B.2 in L&S).
But if we were to use a term to describe the job out of context (say, writing it in a curriculum vitae, for instance) I'd probably go for dapifer as you wrote.
I suggest pincerna (Thanks to the comment of @Hugh, I found this word in the Vulgata in the Joseph-in-prison scene.)
answered Apr 3, 2017 at 13:45
There are a lot of good answers here, but the one I like best is in the OP's question, minister and ministra.
It is true that minister has a somewhat broader meaning than "waiter", but if you are in a restaurant setting, I don't think there will be any ambiguity. I also note that John Traupman's dictionary lists minister when you look up "waiter" in the English-to-Latin section.
For a definitively medieval flavour I suggest another word buticularius (the source of the modern English word "butler". The word buticularius is AFAIK not attested for the Classical period.
answered Apr 3, 2017 at 15:49