latte

I hear you, crunchy. I grew up with coffee, tea, and cocoa, so I too cringed somewhat as coffee splintered into a zillion forrin-soundin' permutations of latte, espresso, mocha, capp, etc., though I'm over the shock of it now.

Its pronunciation is impossible to perform without sounding pretentious, unless the pronouncer is genuinely Italian. It is a word that has entered general use in the UK only in recent years, when thitherto everyone was perfectly happy to just drink "coffee".

I think Britons are the most likely to sound pretentious and annoying when saying this word, and only when pronouncing a long "ahhh" sound. Lahhhhhtay.

Surely I am not the only one irritated by this one!

why is it annoying?

Lartay. Most annoying word EVER.

Yes, embryonic. There's still a corner in my town that doesn't have one...yet.

Dang, I'd hate to see how fast that sucker grows once it's been born...

I live in Silicon Valley, and am hence required by social contract to drink one of these every 90 minutes or so.

Any bets on how soon the first baby named Frappuccino will be born? Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks says “we’re still in the embryonic stage” of business growth. (???)

Latte comes from the same root as the Spanish word leche, which means milk (the root is "lacto-" from which we get the English words lactose and lactate). The cultural differences are interesting: in the Spanish-speaking world you order café con leche, or "coffee with milk." In Italy, the phrase is caffè con latte. Curious how Italy's influence on the world of food has brought the phrase into the English language, albeit in abridged form.

In Italy, you would simply get a glass of milk.

du