The English word “bar” is originally an acronym for “beer and alcohol room”.
For years, the claim that the word “bar” was originally an acronym for “beer and alcohol room” has been circulating on social media. On July 10, 2024, for example, an Instagram user wrote published a meme with the caption:
How old were you when you learned that BAR stands for “Beer & Alcohol Room”?
The headline of the article was: “Be honest?”
(Instagram user @westwest739)
The earliest example of this claim that Snopes could identify was posted on X on December 14, 2018. The content of this post was almost identical to the meme above and read: “How old were you when you learned that BAR stands for Beer & Alcohol Room?”
How old were you when you learned that BAR stands for Beer & Alcohol Room?
— Today years old (@todayyearssoldig) 15 December 2018
Since then, the claim has been posted numerous times in text, meme and video form on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and other social media sites.
In addition to English-language posts, the claim about the etymology of the word “bar” spread widely in other languages as well. In fact, the post with the highest engagement numbers that Snopes was able to identify was written in French.
This post, dated June 13, 2020, which had received around 1,200 reposts and 5,500 likes at the time of this writing, read: “C’est quand que vous avez su que le mot ‘BAR’ signifie Beer and Alcohol Room?”
What if you know that “BAR” means beer and alcohol room?
— Bati 🔅 (@bati_acl) 13 June 2020
Translated into English, this means: “When did you learn that the word BAR means beer and alcohol room?” In other words, the post was a near-direct translation of the phrase used in many English-language posts.
Similar posts were also written in Italian, Portuguese and Swahili (Snopes verified the translations of the Portuguese and Swahili posts using Google Translate).
Despite its seemingly worldwide popularity, this claim was incorrect. The English word “bar” is not originally an acronym for “beer and alcohol room.”
Instead, several etymological dictionaries have confirmed that the word “bar,” in the meaning defined by Merriam-Webster as “a room or establishment in which alcoholic beverages and sometimes food are served,” has the same etymological origin as the primary meaning of the English word “bar,” namely, “a solid piece or block of material that is longer than it is wide.”
Both the Online Etymological Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary and An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English indicate that the word “bar” entered English in the 12th century via the Old French word “barre,” meaning “beam, beam, gate, barrier.”
All three dictionaries noted that the word “bar” in English in the sense of a tavern or drinking establishment was first used in the 1590s, referring specifically to “the barrier or counter over which drinks or food were served to guests.”
In summary, several etymological dictionaries have explained that the English word “bar,” meaning tavern or drinking establishment, evolved as a particular use of the broader term “bar,” which denotes a long, solid block of material. The actual origin of both terms was the Old French word “barre.” For this reason, Snopes has classified as “false” the claim that the word “bar” was originally an acronym for “beer and alcohol room.”
