latte
noun/ˈlæ.ti/
1
A pillar capped by a hemispherical stone capital with the flat side facing up, used as building supports by the ancient Chamorro people and now used as a sign of Chamorro identity.
latte
nounUK /ˈlɑː.teɪ/ · US /ˈlɑ.teɪ/
Etymology Ellipsis of caffè latte, from Italian caffellatte, ultimately from Latin lac, lactis.
1
A drink of coffee made from espresso and steamed milk, generally topped with foam.
- Lilian Benedict walked into the office carrying two cups of latte.1991, Jayne Ann Krentz, chapter 12, in Sweet Fortune, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 208:
- Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2020, page 68:
2 more examples
- High-priced lattes and customized drinks helped lift the coffee chain’s US sales in the quarter ending on October 1, the company said Thursday.2023 November 2, Danielle Wiener-Bronner, “Starbucks is leaning into its sugary concoctions to boost the business”, in CNN Business:
- Photos of the drink, posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo by the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, show a drizzle of dark red sauce atop the latte foam — with a square slice of pork on a skewer resting on the mug rim.2024 February 20, Jessie Yeung and Hassan Tayir, “Pork flavored coffee is Starbucks’ newest China pitch”, in CNN Business:
2
Broadly A similar drink, where the espresso is replaced with some other flavoring ingredient such as chai, maté or matcha (green tea).
- matcha latte
3
Figuratively, Informal Affluent leftism.
- latte liberal
- Newt Gingrich accused New York mayor Bill De Blasio of “small soy latte liberalism” in 2014 – emphasising that the only thing more girlish than drinking a big dairy milky coffee was drinking a small vegan milky coffee.2025 September 4, Sam Wolfson, quoting Newt Gingrich, “Latte-swilling ‘performative males’: why milky drinks are shorthand for liberal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- avocado latte, avolatte, chai latte, latte art, latte artist, latte factor, latteless, latte levy, latte liberal, latte-sipping, Latte Town, poor man's latte, pumpkin spice latte, vanillatte
- Related terms
- café latte, cosmic latte, fior di latte, latte macchiato