pourboire means A tip (extra money given to e.g. a waiter in appreciation of service), especially in French contexts.
Why “pourboire” is a great word
A small sum of money, given beyond the stated charge for a service, particularly in a French context, or, less commonly, a petty bribe. Borrowed from French 'pourboire', literally meaning 'for (a) drink' (from 'pour' for + 'boire' to drink), first attested in English in 1788. Unlike 'gratuity', a sterile, transactional term, or 'bribe', a dark weight meant to bend judgment, a pourboire retains the warm intimacy of its etymology: the coin pressed into a palm as an invitation to conviviality. It is the folded note slipped beneath a saucer in a Left Bank café, the extra franc for the concierge who secured the impossible reservation, the modest acknowledgment that service is human and deserves a moment of shared humanity. Even when shadowed by its secondary sense, the word remains a secular blessing for a small kindness rendered.
Etymology
Borrowed from French pourboire.
noun
- A tip (extra money given to e.g. a waiter in appreciation of service), especially in French contexts.
- A bribe.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.