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In this headline:

"Millennial women are turning to influencers for financial advice, free of latte-shaming."

I can't figure out what "latte-shaming" is. Would that be the shame of taking advice from someone younger?

aaaaa says reinstate Monica
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Lynera pintcho
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3 Answers3

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"(Noun)-shaming" is a stock phrase that describes (usually unfair) criticism of someone because of some characteristic. A latte is an example of a "fancy" coffee drink available at many coffee shops like Starbucks. So on its face, "latte-shaming" would be criticizing people for buying coffee drinks.

In this context, however, "latte-shaming" refers specifically to a category of financial advice made popular by the book The Latte Factor by David Back, where he suggests that cutting down on small luxuries (like a daily latte) can add up to a meaningful difference in your financial state.

It's an over-simplification, but "just stop buying lattes" became a stereotype of this kind of simplistic advice, especially when offered to younger Americans.

An example of an article discussing (and attempting to refute) this trope: Buying Coffee Every Day Isn’t Why You’re in Debt. Debunking the personal finance advice industry’s favorite myth.

I don't have a NYT subscription, but your headline appears to be for an article profiling a different kind of financial advisor/online influencer, one who is unlikely to give the old "just stop buying lattes"-kind of advice.

BradC
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  • The latte-shaming thing is not literal. And someone had to write an entire article as if it were? – Lambie Apr 18 '22 at 15:10
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    @Lambie Even if Bach's original advice was somewhat more nuanced (I admit I have not read his book [The Latte Factor](https://www.amazon.com/Latte-Factor-Dont-Have-Rich/dp/1982120231?msclkid=f5c5c89ebf2911ecb14e595cdbab4f2f)), Starbucks lattes absolutely have entered the popular lexicon as a shortcut for the "reduce your spending by eliminating small 'luxuries'"-category of financial advice, which is actually what my linked article is criticizing. – BradC Apr 18 '22 at 15:22
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    The point is not that reducing unnecessary spending is bad advice, the point is that this kind of advice is 1) overly simplistic and 2) is, frankly, trivializing and insulting to everyone who has already done so but still face serious financial difficulties. – BradC Apr 19 '22 at 13:57
  • The term was probably chosen because it kind of rhymes with "fat-shaming", which is one of the most common examples of the xxx-shaming phrase. – Barmar Apr 19 '22 at 15:28
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    @Barmar I don't see how 'latte' (lah-tay) rhymes with 'fat'. – JimmyJames Apr 19 '22 at 19:18
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    @JimmyJames That's why I said "kind of". The first syllable is similar, and the second syllable is not emphasized. – Barmar Apr 19 '22 at 19:20
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    Rhyming isn't the right term here, but it absolutely follows the same pattern. I'm not sure if "fat-shaming" is where the pattern came from, or if there were other examples before it. – BradC Apr 19 '22 at 19:47
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    @BradC Yeah, terms of the form "x-shaming" are common in current American English, regardless of whether "x" is even remotely close to "fat" or not. "fat-shaming" is just one example among many. – reirab Apr 21 '22 at 04:52
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Compound nouns ending in '-shaming' can be created to refer to a kind of unfair blaming (of a person or of people) because of some activity or personal aspect. Sometimes the hyphen is omitted or replaced with a space. Coffee-shaming appears to be blaming people for spending money in coffee shops rather than drinking coffee at home (the implication is of extravagance). Latte is the Italian word for milk and is often used alone by English speakers when they order a mixture of espresso coffee and steamed milk in a coffee shop or coffee bar. Italians in Italy would probably ask for a caffè latte.

Other examples include body-shaming (blaming someone for their size, fat-shaming also if they are perceived to be larger than some arbitrary size or shape); slut-shaming (blaming a woman for perceived promiscuity). Many of these are directed against women.

-shaming ​SUFFIX

combines with nouns and adjectives to form nouns that refer to unkind criticism, especially on social media or in the press, of certain kinds of people for their appearance or behaviour

slut-shaming

fat-shaming

We usually hear about body-shaming being directed at women with curves.

-shaming (Macmillan Dictionary)

Michael Harvey
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The other answers have focussed on the aspect of "-shaming", but not covered what is "latte".

Warning: in English, latte does not mean milk, unlike people familiar with romance languages and in particular Italian might guess. Rather, to English speakers and some others, latte refers to a coffee-based drink containing milk. Others would call it Milchkaffee, café au lait, café con leche, or caffé e latte: Photo of a cup with a drink based on coffee and steamed milk
A cup of coffee with steamed milk. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Somehow in English, caffé e latte became shortened to just latte.

To Italians and those who know Italian, this is latte. In English, people would call this milk: Photo of a glass of milk
A glass of milk. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Post scriptum: a similar etymological journey has happened with the word chai. Speakers of Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Persian, Mandarin, or several other languages, may be confused into thinking that chai means tea; however, in English, it is short for masala chai, an Indian tea sweetened with various spices. Order a chai latte and the confusion to the rare polyglot who knows many languages but not English is complete!

gerrit
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    If there were an Italian for learners site, a large picture of a glass of milk with the caption *latte* might be helpful. Not so much here. – EllieK - Don't support her Apr 19 '22 at 20:13
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    @EllieK It's an English learners site, and some English learners might be Italian native speakers. Knowing that in English, *latte* is not *milk*, is useful and necessary to know to understand the word "latte-shaming". – gerrit Apr 19 '22 at 20:25
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    @EllieK It is also helpful for English learners to understand the origin of words. It helps in understanding and remembering. – gerrit Apr 19 '22 at 20:50
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    I specifically joined to ELL community to say that I like this answer very much :) – Arvo Apr 20 '22 at 07:33
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    @gerrit - Some English learners may be Kenyan. Shall we do the same for Swahili? Farsi? Why the perceived need to disambiguate Italian words? Are you under the impression that the Learners hear are primarily from Romance speaking countries? I am not left with that impression. ELL not ELI. – EllieK - Don't support her Apr 20 '22 at 12:38
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    @EllieK Because the English word *latte* was taken directly from Italian, and immediately turned into a false friend. Language learners need to be aware of false friends. I'm not aware of any English loanwords from Swahili that are both homophones and false friends. I did give a Farsi example in the appendix to my answer (perhaps a Farsi speaker will see "chai" on a English menu and expect tea?). I don't understand what you mean by "ELL not ELI." – gerrit Apr 20 '22 at 12:52
  • @gerrit - In much the same way that you not aware of *false friend* words in Swahili, learners are not aware of *false friend* words in Italian. Can you see my point now? This post is obnoxious at best. Final comment. – EllieK - Don't support her Apr 20 '22 at 12:55
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    @EllieK I see what point you are making, but I disagree. I think that knowing the origin of words helps language learners, including for loan words and false friends from languages they don't know. – gerrit Apr 20 '22 at 12:57
  • It doesn't help that "milk tea" is also its own thing that has nothing to do with a "chai latte" even though etymologically those two mean the same thing. A "milk tea" is a drink that was popularized in East Asia that is an iced black tea with powdered milk used as a creamer, often with a variety of flavors and tapioca balls added in – Kevin Apr 21 '22 at 17:30
  • @EllieK I'm not sure why you can't distinguish between this post that addresses a possible confusion for ELLs that directly relates to the question at hand and languages like Swahili that have nothing to do with the meaning or origin of the phrase "latte-shaming". In order to fully understand "latte-shaming" for an ELL you need to clarify both "latte" and "-shaming". This is addressing the former where the other answers primarily address the latter – Kevin Apr 21 '22 at 17:35
  • @Kevin - I'm uncertain as to why you think the original poster does not understand what a *latte* is. That is not part of the original question whatsoever. It is an **assumption** that you made. If you look up the word *latte* in an English dictionary you will not find any ambiguity. The question asks about *latte-shaming* which is probably not in any dictionary yet. A large photo of a glass of milk in no way helps to answer the question. We do not provide dictionary definitions here. Did you know that? – EllieK - Don't support her Apr 21 '22 at 19:30
  • @EllieK The OP asked what the meaning of "latte-shaming" is, not just specifically what "-shaming" is, so both parts could be a source of confusion. If the question said, "I know what a latte in English is, but what does the shaming part mean?" then your complaint would be justified. However, while the meaning of "latte" isn't ambiguous in English, it may be a source of significant confusion for speakers of Romance languages (about 900 million people, many of whom definitely use this site), so it's useful for an answer to make sure that possible roadblock is cleared up – Kevin Apr 22 '22 at 17:54