chasse-café

English

WOTD – 14 July 2018

Etymology

A glass of iced sambuca served with coffee as a chasse-café

Borrowed from French chasse-café (literally “coffee-chaser”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌʃaskaˈfeɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌʃæskæˈfeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Hyphenation: chasse-ca‧fé

Noun

chasse-café (plural chasse-cafés)

1. (dated) A small serving of spirits taken to remove the taste of coffee, tobacco, etc.

   Synonyms: (shortening) chasse, pousse-café

   • 1833 May, “a Yorkshireman” [pseudonym], “A Trip to Paris with Mr. Jorrocks”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume V, number XXV, London: Baldwin & Cradock [et al.], →OCLC, page 42:

     "[…] And here comes tea and coffee—may as well have some, I suppose it will be all the same price. And what's this?" eyeing a lot of liqueur glasses full of eau de vie. "Chasse café, Monsieur," said the garçon. "Chasse cafe—chasse cafe—what's that? Oh, I twig—what we call 'shove in the mouth' at the Free-and-Easy.—Yes, certainly, give me a glass."

   • 1838, [Hezekiah Hartley Wright], chapter XXI, in Desultory Reminiscences of a Tour through Germany, Switzerland, and France. By an American, Boston, Mass.: William D[avis] Ticknor; Philadelphia, Pa.: E[dward] L. Carey and A[braham] Hart, →OCLC, page 297:

     The business of the drama is now over, and by way of epilogue, you toss off a demi-tasse of café noir, with its accompanying petit verre de liqueur, which has been appositely termed chasse-café, from the peculiar rapidity it usually exhibits in following that aromatic beverage. […] Such are the details of a Parsian dinner; […]

   • [1847, Sylvanus [pseudonym; Robert Colton], “Letter XIX”, in Rambles in Sweden and Gottland: With Etchings by the Way-side, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 131:

     The former will have devoted himself to you for the first half-score hours, have promenaded, dined à la carte, and chasse café’d with you, seen you to your hotel with bows, promises, and ravishing language, and then—have forgotten you for ever.]

   • 1853, James Simpson, “The Louvre Gallery—First Visit”, in Paris after Waterloo: Notes Taken at the Time and hitherto Unpublished: […], Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 143:

     The dinner was in the best French manner—choice fruit, and wines of the greatest variety and richness; melon, with boiled beef as usual; coffee after dinner, without cream, and a small glass of liqueur called chasse-café, after it.

   • 1858, Anthony Trollope, “Sir Louis Leaves Greshamsbury”, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 118:

     Sir Louis began by ordering the woman to bring him chasse-café. She offered him coffee, as much as he would; but no chasse.

   • 1868, H[enry] C[harles] Ross Johnson, “The Conspiracy.—The Harbour of Buenos Ayres.”, in A Long Vacation in the Argentine Alps: Or Where to Settle in the River Plate States, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 22:

     I could not understand why they gave us unlimited light claret for dinner, with Madeira and champagne, with any number of chasse cafés, all included in the passage-money, whilst any one calling for a modest glass of ale had to pay extra, and pretty handsomely, for the same.

   • 1880 January 3, Franz Liszt, “1880 [chapter title]”, in William R[oyall] Tyler, transl., The Letters of Franz Liszt to Olga von Meyendorff 1871–1886 in the Mildred Bliss Collection at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks; trustees for Harvard University, published 1979, →ISBN, page 365:

     At the concert (which was at three) I found [Anton] Rubinstein who is here visiting his wife for Christmas. We dined together (at the Grand Hôtel de Russie, Babuino). As a chasse-café I banged out for him my arrangement of the Tic-tac Tarantelle by [Alexander] Dargomizhsky.

Alternative forms

• chasse café

Related terms

• chassé
• chasseur

Translations

small serving of spirits taken to remove the taste of coffee

• French: pousse-café (fr) m, (archaic, rare) chasse-café (fr) m
• Italian: ammazzacaffè m

French

Etymology

Literally, “coffee-chaser”, from chasse (“chase, drive off”, 2nd person singular imperative of chasser) +‎ café (“coffee”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃas.ka.fe/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e

Noun

chasse-café m (plural chasse-café or chasse-cafés)

1. (archaic, rare) chasse-café, pousse-café (small glass of alcohol after coffee)

   Synonym: pousse-café