The first French "restaurat" was in New York, in 1821?

[Mark Mandel]

No, it wasn't. "Restaurateur" was the original French form of the word for a
provider of food (etc.). It never had an "n" until people started inserting
one by analogy with "restaurant". Michael's column describes the history
nicely.

m a m

On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 1:07 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> [...] Michael's column [...] starts:
>
> [Q] From Peter Hill, Canada: One eats in a restaurant run by a
> restaurateur. Where did the n disappear to, and when?
>
> [A] It didn't disappear. It was never there in the first place.
>
> So Joseph Collet's "restaurat" was the correct original form!
>

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