Fact Check: 'Bar' Doesn't Stand for 'Beer and Alcohol Room'

Claim:

The English word “bar” originated as an acronym for “beer and alcohol room.”

Rating:

For years, a claim has circulated on social media that the word "bar" originated as an acronym for "beer and alcohol room." For example on July 10, 2024, an Instagram user posted a meme reading: 

 The caption of the post read, "Be honest?"

(Instagram user @westwest739)

The earliest example of the claim Snopes has been able to identify was posted on X on Dec. 14, 2018. The content of that post was almost identical to the above meme, reading: "How old were you when you learned that BAR stood for Beer & Alcohol Room?"

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" also spread widely in other languages. In fact, the post with the highest engagement numbers Snopes has been able to identify was written in French.

That post, which was made on June 13, 2020, and as of this writing had received around 1,200 reposts and 5,500 likes, read: "C'est quand que vous avez su que le mot " BAR " signifie Beer and Alcohol Room ?"

Translated into English, that means, "When did you learn that the word 'BAR' means Beer and Alcohol Room?" In other words, the post was a nearly direct translation of the phrasing used in many English-language posts.

Similar posts have also been made in Italian, Portuguese, and Swahili (Snopes used Google Translate to check the translations of the Portuguese and Swahili posts).

Despite its seemingly global spread, the claim was not correct. The English word "bar" did not originate as an acronym for "beer and alcohol room."

Instead, multiple etymological dictionaries have confirmed that the word "bar," in the sense Merriam-Webster defines as "a room or establishment where alcoholic drinks 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."

Namely, as noted by the Online Etymology Dictionary as well as the Oxford English Dictionary and An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, the word "bar" came into English in the 12th century by way of the Old French word "barre," meaning "beam, bar, gate, barrier."

All three dictionaries noted that the first known English use of the word "bar" to mean a tavern or drinking establishment occurred in the 1590s and specifically referred to the "barrier or counter over which drinks or food were served to customers."

In sum, multiple etymological dictionaries have explained that English word "bar," meaning tavern or drinking establishment, developed as a particular usage of the broader term "bar," meaning a long, solid block of material. The ultimate origin of both terms was the Old French word "barre." For this reason, Snopes has rated the claim that the word "bar" originated as an acronym for "beer and alcohol room" as "False."