Delicatessen

Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (original: Delikatessen) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th century. European immigrants to the United States, especially Ashkenazi Jews, popularized the delicatessen in U.S. culture beginning in the late 19th century. Today, many large retail stores like supermarkets have deli sections. Delicatessen is a German loanword which first appeared in English in the late 19th century and is the plural of Delikatesse. The German form was lent from the French délicatesse, which itself was lent from Italian delicatezza, from delicato, of which the root word is the Latin adjective delicatus, meaning "giving pleasure, delightful, pleasing". The first U.S. short version of this word, deli, came into existence probably after World War II (first evidence from 1948). The German food company Dallmayr is credited with being the first delicatessen created. In 1700, it became the first store to import to the German population bananas, mangoes, and plums from places such as the Canary Islands and China. Over 300 years later, it remains the largest business of its kind in Europe. The first delicatessens to appear in the United States were in New York City in the early 1880s, with the first advertised use of this word occurring in early 1884 in St. Louis, Missouri upon the opening of "Sprague's Delicatessen," at first one lunchroom and eventually five popular downtown lunch establishments operating between 1884 and 1906. Early delicatessens in New York catered to the German immigrant population living there. As the German-Jewish population increased in New York City during the mid- to late 1800s, kosher delicatessens began to open; the first was founded in 1889. In the United States, by the late 20th to early 21st centuries, supermarkets, local economy stores, and fast food outlets began using the word (often abbreviated as "deli") to describe sections of their stores.