- kiosk (n.)
- 1620s, "kind of open pavilion" (made of light wood, etc., often supported by pillars), from French kiosque (17c.), which is (along with German and Polish kiosk) from Turkish koshk, kiöshk "pavilion, summer house," from Persian kushk "palace, villa; pavilion, portico." They were introduced in Western Europe 17c. as ornaments in gardens and parks. Later of street newsstands (1865), on some resemblance of form, a sense perhaps originally in French. Modern sense influenced by British telephone kiosk (1928).
