I know that the word cafe (referring to a place to go eat) stems directly from the same word in French meaning coffee, but what etymological connection does it have with the English word cafeteria? The two words have different connotations in English but I wonder if cafeteria and cafe share a closer background or snynonymity (either in English or Fench) or if one's usage predates the other's.
General reference resources vary about the details, especially as concerns the origins of cafeteria. Merriam Webster, with reference to cafeteria in the sense of "a restaurant in which the customers serve themselves or are served at a counter and take the food to tables to eat" and in the sense of "lunchroom", says the origins are
American Spanish cafetería coffeehouse, from cafetera coffee maker, from French cafetière, from café.
First Known Use: 1894.
Merriam gives the first known use of cafeteria as a adjective in the sense of "providing a selection from which a choice may be made" as 1908.
Random House (at Dictionary.com), for noun senses similar to those given by Merriam, says the origin is earlier:
1830-40, Americanism; < American Spanish cafetería café, equivalent to Spanish cafeter(a) coffeemaker (< French caf(f) etière; café coffee + -ière, feminine of -ier -ier2; t apparently by analogy with words such as bouquetière flower seller, from bases ending in t) + -ía -ia.
Wiktionary is very loose about the date of origin for cafeteria, but provides a more detailed description of the language origins:
(Mid 19th or 20th century) American Spanish cafetería (“coffeehouse”), from cafetera (“coffee maker”), from French cafetière, from café, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve) (Turkish kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”).
Best Answer
YES, the terms derive from Italian caffè
Cafeteria is a more recent AmE term of Spanish influence:
cafe (n.) :
Coffee:
Cafeteria:
(Etymonline)