Tipping - a Brief History

Personal Finance A A Brief History of Tipping Though tipping the waiter may feel like something that's always been part of the dining experience in America, the fact is that the act of tipping is a borrowed custom from Europe. 1 Tipping in the United States began just after the Civil War in the late 1800s. Wealthy Americans traveling abroad to Europe witnessed tipping and brought the aristocratic custom back with them to prove their elevated education and class. - Tipping wasn't embraced by all Americans when the custom began to make its way into our country's taverns and dining halls. Resistance to tipping began in the late 1890s. Many Americans believed that tipping went against the country's ideals and allowed for the existence of a clear servile class that would be financially dependent on a higher class. Origin of the word "tip" A popular belief is that tipping originated in the taverns of 17th-century England, where drinkers would slip money to the waiter "to insure promptitude," or TIP for short. But there are alternative thoughts on the matter: 1"Tip" may come from stipend, a bastardized version of the Latin "stips. o It may come from the Dutch word "tippen," which means to tap and refers to the tapping sound of a coin put on a table or tapped against a glass to draw the waiter's attention. oIt may be derived from a phrase in Romany, Gypsies' language, "tipper me your money," which means "give me your money." O There's an 18th-century English phrase “tip me," meaning "give me." O The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology refers to "tip" as a "rogues cant" or "medieval street talk" that means "hand it over" or simply “give me money." o In several languages, the word for "tip" is associated with drinking, as tipping began in drinking occasions, and therefore suggests that "tip" is a short form of the English word "tipple" – to drink. SOURCES: Food Woolf and Economist Ofer H. Azar creators.com / Frank Mariani