My understanding is that a kiosk was originally a sort of "summer house" in the
Persian empire. It was more open, to allow breezes through, than an ordinary
house. More recently, the term has been applied to an assortment of small
open-air outbuildings. This includes food booths, bandstands, information
booths, ticket booths, phone booths, etc. Different subcultures seem to have
latched onto particular uses and come to associate the term with the locally
most common use. For example, the Random House Dictionary (unabridged) makes
no mention of either information center or refreshment stand, but uses
newsstand and bandstand.
Robin Panza [log in to unmask]
Section of Birds, Carnegie MNH
Pittsburgh PA USA 15213
In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Gerhard Dangel-Reese <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> Isn't this a rather new definition of a "kiosk" ? In Germany a kiosk has
> exactly the same definition as in Australia and as far as I remember in
> England too.
> Gerhard Dangel-Reese
>
> On Thu, 6 Jun 1996, Henry B. Crawford wrote:
>
>> >In Australia a kiosk is a "building in which refreshments are served in
>> >park, zoo, etc" (Oxford Dictionary). What do, a least a large proportion
>> >of, you mean by `kiosk'? I gather it has something to do with computers?
>> >--
>> >Jennifer Nuske
>>
>>
>> Here in the States a kiosk is an information booth, usually staffed, but
>> some are not. It's a place where notices and directional maps are posted,
>> brochures are made available, and questions are answered. Visitors are
>> oriented to the museum or site from the kiosk. Both of ours double as
>> guard stations. In addition to greeting and orienting our visitors, our
>> guards monitor high security areas via closed-circut TV at the kiosks.
>>
>> HBC
>>
>> *****************************************
>> Henry B. Crawford Curator of History
>> [log in to unmask] Museum of Texas Tech University
>> 806/742-2442 Box 43191
>> FAX 742-1136 Lubbock, TX 79409-3191
>> *********All opinions expressed are mine**********
>>
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