"Little Italy" in Vegas? The Story of a Little Word that Defined an Entire City

Did you ever ask yourself where the word "casino" comes from? With all due credit to Las Vegas, the name of the city's most precious asset cannot be an original creation. The origin must go further back than even the desert town itself. Furthermore, the city's Venetian Hotel may contain within its walls a bit of the English language's history.

 

The word has its roots in the open lands of Italy. ‘Casino', an Italian word, contains the root ‘casa', meaning house. In early years, the word casino merely applied to a country house or cottage. Later on, with the evolution of the Italian language, the word came to denote a center of social gathering. Locals would convene at the casino for town functions such as dancing, music, and-you guessed it, gambling.

 

Through time, the gambling element of the casino came to take over the meaning of the word and the official definition of "casino" was defined as a "gambling establishment". The official entrance of the word "casino" into the English language was first recorded in 1851, receiving the same definition as the Italian.