apéritif means an alcoholic drink served before a meal as an appetiser. It carries an Arena rating of 1418, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apéritif ranks #1,484 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,661 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,214 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,961 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
apéritif is pronounced /ɑːˌpɛɹɪˈtiːf/.
Why “apéritif” is a great word
An alcoholic drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite, borrowed from French *apéritif*, from Latin *aperīre* ("to open"), first attested in English c. 1890. Unlike a digestif, which arrives after to settle, or an appetizer, which is a savory prelude of food, the apéritif is a liquid key to anticipation. It is the sharp, cold clarity of a gin and tonic, the bitter-herbal whisper of Campari over ice, or the pale, effervescent promise of champagne—a deliberate, ceremonial opening of the palate, and the evening, to what is yet to come, the elegant fiction that hunger must be awakened, as if it were not already there, patient and waiting.
Etymology
Borrowed from French apéritif. Doublet of aperitive.
noun
- An alcoholic drink served before a meal as an appetiser.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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