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Origin and history of menu

menu(n.)

1837, "detailed list of dishes to be served at a banquet or meal," from French menu de repas "list of what is served at a meal," from French menu (adj.) "small, detailed" (11c.), from Latin minutus "small," literally "made smaller," past participle of minuere "to diminish," from root of minus "to diminish" (from PIE root *mei- (2) "small"). Computer sense of "list of options displayed on a screen" is by 1967, from the expanded sense of "any detailed list," which is attested by 1889.

also from 1837

Entries linking to menu

miniver(n.)

a type of fur once commonly used for lining and trimming in garments, mid-13c., from Old French menu vair "minor fur;" see menu + vair. The exact description of the thing and meaning of the term is now unclear; according to older French sources, it came from some kind of squirrel.

*mei-(2)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "small."

It might form all or part of: administer; administration; comminute; diminish; meiosis; Menshevik; menu; metier; mince; minestrone; minim; minimum; minister; ministration; ministry; minor; minuend; minuet; minus; minuscule; minute; minutia; Miocene; mis- (2); mite (n.2) "little bit;" mystery (n.2) "handicraft, trade, art;" nimiety.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit miyate "diminishes, declines;" Greek meion "less, smaller;" Latin minus, minor "smaller," minuere "to diminish, reduce, lessen;" Old English minsian "to diminish;" Russian men'she "less."

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    fare
    Old English fær "journey, road, passage, expedition," from strong neuter of faran "to journey" (see fare (v.)); merged with faru "journey, expedition, companions, baggage," strong fem. of faran. Original sense is obsolete, except in compounds (wayfarer, sea-faring, etc.) Meaning
    card
    early 15c., "a playing card," from Old French carte (14c.), from Medieval Latin carta/charta "a card, paper; a writing, a charter," from Latin charta "leaf of paper, a writing, tablet," from Greek khartēs "layer of papyrus," which is probably from Egyptian. The form has been infl
    minnow
    Perhaps influenced in Middle English by French menu "small." In the U.S., applied to various fishes of small size....
    minuet
    "small, fine, delicate, narrow," from menu "small," from Latin minutus "small, minute" (from PIE root *mei- (2) "small")....
    Spam
    ultimately it is from a 1970 sketch on the British TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" wherein a reading of a restaurant's menu...
    pizza
    for Neapolitans to recognize as their own, but which have transformed it into a key item on the international fast-food menu...
    cover
    probably involves the banquet service use of cover for a charge which includes ("covers") everything provided with the food — menu...
    schedule
    late 14c., sedule, cedule "ticket, label, slip of paper with writing on it" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French cedule (Modern French cédule), from Late Latin schedula "strip of paper" (in Medieval Latin also "a note, schedule"), diminutive of Latin scheda, scida "one of the
    list
    "catalogue consisting of names in a row or series," c. 1600, from Middle English liste "border, edging, stripe" (late 13c.), from Old French liste "border, band, row, group," also "strip of paper," or from Old Italian lista "border, strip of paper, list," both from Germanic sourc
    silt
    mid-15c., "fine sand or sediment deposited by seawater," probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Norwegian and Danish sylt "salt marsh," Old Swedish sylta "mud"), or from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch silte, sulte "salt marsh, brine," from Proto-Germanic *sultjo- (source

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