a brief history of tipping
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There is nothing certain about the history of tipping but one thing – it must be somehow connected to the history of money. Although the origins are not clear and geographical and cultural phenomena still puzzle many, tipping is part of most of the cultures of the world. We’ve collected some random and interesting facts about the history and origins of tipping. They will certainly not explain everything and clear all the mysteries but they surely make a great conversation gems once you get to know them and just sprinkle them when tipping the waiter next time you’re having a dinner with friends. It simply feels good to know more than others do…TRANSCRIPT
A B R I E F H I S T O R YThe origins, trivia & interesting facts on tipping around the globe
O F T I P P I N G
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIPPING
There is nothing certain about the history of tipping but one thing – it must be somehow connected to the history of money. Although the origins are not clear and geographical and cultural phenomena still puzzle many, tipping is part of most of the cultures of the world. We’ve collected some random and interesting facts about the history and origins of tipping. They will certainly not explain everything and clear all the mysteries but they surely make a great conversation gems once you get to know them and just sprinkle them when tipping the waiter next time you’re having a dinner with friends. It simply feels good to know more than others do…
Travel World Passport Team
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ORIGINS OF TIPPINGThe origin of tipping is lost, like so many things, in the Mists of Antiquity. There's evidence that tipping goes back at least to the age of the Romans, but human nature being what it is, it could just as easily date from the invention of money.
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word tip originated as a slang term, and its etymology is unclear. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the meaning to "give a small present of money to" began in c.1600, and the meaning "give a gratuity to" is first attested in 1706
THE TRUE MEANING
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Some historians point that the practice of tipping began in Tudor England. By the 17th century, it was expected that overnight guests to private homes would provide sums of money, known as vails, to the host’s servants. Soon after, customers began tipping in London coffeehouses and other commercial establishments.
VAIL OR NOT TO VAIL
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The etymology for the synonym for tipping, gratuity, dates back to the 1520s, from "graciousness", from the French gratuité (14th century) or directly from Medieval Latin gratuitas, "free gift", probably from earlier Latin gratuitus, "free, freely given" . The meaning "money given for favor or services" is first attested [in the] 1530s
THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD
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DRINK MONEY IN GERMANYThe word "tip" started to be commonly used for a gratuity around the 1700s in England, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, although Cornell University professor Michael Lind found evidence of a craftsman asking a customer for trinkgeld or "drink money" in German, for an apprentice dating back to 1509, so the practice emerged before its current name.
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The noun in this sense is from 1755. The term in the sense of "to give a gratuity" first appeared in the 18th century. It derived from an earlier sense of tip, meaning "to give; to hand, pass", which originated in the rogues' cant in the 17th century. This sense may have derived from the 16th-century tip, meaning "to strike or hit smartly but lightly" (which may have derived from the Low German tippen, "to tap"), but this derivation is "very uncertain"
STRIKE OR HIT SMARTLY BUT LIGHTLY
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TO INSURE PROMPTNESSThe most charming explanation refers us back to the days of Dr. Johnson and his eighteenth century circle of wits. Upon entering his local coffeeshop for a session of epigram-flinging, Dr. Johnson (or rather, one presumes, his flunky, Mr. Boswell) would drop a few pence in a box labeled "To Insure Promptness" ("T.I.P."--get it?) in order to encourage a greater display of vigor on the part of the generally listless attendants.
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ARISTOCRATIC PRACTICEHistorians argue that tipping began as an aristocratic practice, a sprinkle of change for social inferiors, and it quickly spread among the upper classes of Europe. Yet even at its outset, tipping engendered feelings of anxiety and resentment. In the mid-1800s, after leaving the Bell Inn of Gloucester, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle complained: “The dirty scrub of a waiter grumbled about his allowance, which I reckoned liberal. I added sixpence to it, and [he] produced a bow which I was near rewarding with a kick.”
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DON’T BLAME AMERICANSAlthough tipping is now thought of as a distinctively American practice, it was actually an Old World tradition that did not take hold until after the Civil War. (The whole notion of gifting to "inferiors" did not mesh well with the ideals of democracy, as ames Surowiecki writes in The New Yorker research study of tipping.
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MONKEY SEE MONKEY DOAccording to Michael Lynn, a professor at the Cornell University School, tipping in the United States began just after the American Civil War in the late 1800′s. Lynn suggests that wealthy Americans traveling abroad to Europe witnessed tipping and brought the aristocratic custom back with them to “show off,” or prove their elevated education and class.
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TIPPING IN AMERICA NOT THAT WELCOME
We know now that tipping was imported from Europe, and when it arrived in America, it met with impassioned and organized opposition.
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THE ANTI-TIPPING SOCIETYIn fact it was so outrageing to some, that in 1904, the Anti-Tipping Society of America sprang up in Georgia, and its 100,000 members signed pledges not to tip anyone for a year.
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SERVICE COMPRIS ORIGINSThere were also times, when Europe was rethinking its devotion to the custom. The 1943 Catering Wages Act in Britain established a minimum wage for service employees that helped decrease their reliance on tips. And in 1955, France passed a law requiring its restaurants to add a service charge (“service compris”) to each bill, a practice that has become the norm for most of the continent.
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