Saturday, January 28, 2017

"Kiosk"


       A sign said,  "Get your movie ticket at a kiosk"; I knew then the word's meaning continues to evolve.  Here is the American Heritage Dictionary's "romantic" history:

       The word kiosk was taken into English ultimately from Turkish, in which its source kosk meant "pavilion."  The open structures referred to by the Turkish were used as pavilions and summerhouses.
The first recorded use of kiosk in English (1625) designates these Middle Eastern structures, which Europeans imitated in gardens and parks.

       In France and Belgium, their word kiosque was applied to something lower on the scale, structures resembling  pavilions but used as places to sell newspapers or as bandstands.

       England borrowed this lowly structure from France, then reborrowed the word, first seen in 1865 referring to a place where newspapers are sold. 

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