Boutique

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /buˈtik/

Definitions

1. A small retail store that focuses on selling specialized or fashionable items
2. An independently owned shop offering select merchandise often related to fashion or unique products
3. A compact shop that provides carefully chosen goods appealing to specific customer tastes

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "boutique" is that it began as a Greek word meaning "storehouse." Ancient Greek "apothēkē" was built from "apo-" (away) and "tithēmi" (to put), so it literally meant a place where things were put away. The Romans borrowed it as "apotheca," and the word passed through Old Occitan as "botica," meaning a shop or storeroom, before reaching Middle French as "boutique." English borrowed the word from French, and it arrived with the same plain sense of a shop. The modern sense of a small shop selling specialized or fashionable goods developed later, from the idea of a small, separate place of trade rather than a large general store. "Boutique" is a doublet of "apothecary" and "bodega," which descend from the same Greek root by different routes. The Spanish "bodega" once meant a wine cellar or storeroom, and "apothecary" kept the medicinal sense of a storekeeper of remedies, so three familiar words share one ancient ancestor.

Synonyms: shop, store