Menu

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈmɛnjuː/

Definitions

1. A list of food and drink items available at a restaurant or other dining establishment
2. A list of options or commands displayed on a computer screen or digital device from which a user can select
3. A printed or displayed catalog of dishes prepared by a chef or kitchen, often including prices and descriptions

Etymology: The word "menu" arrived in English from French, where it meant "detailed" or "small" in the sense of a list of small items, and it still carries that older sense of minuteness in its family. Its Latin source, "minutus," meant "small," and the same root gave English "minute," and through Spanish "menudo" came a word for small things and, in some regions, a dish made from tripe. The three words are doublets: separate borrowings that descend from one Latin ancestor by different routes. The French "menu" first took the sense of a detailed list, a set of small particulars, and only later was applied to the list of dishes served at a meal. The shift from many small details to a list of food choices shows how a notion of fine, itemized breakdown could be narrowed to the courses of a dinner.

Synonyms: list, bill of fare, catalog

Antonyms: none