fast food

¹

noun

1. food, as hamburgers, pizza, or fried chicken, that is prepared in quantity by a standardized method and can be dispensed quickly at inexpensive restaurants for eating there or elsewhere.

fast-food

²

[ fast-food, fahst- ]

adjective

1. of or specializing in fast food.

fast food

noun

1. food that requires little preparation before being served

adjective

1. (of a restaurant, café, etc) serving such food

Word History and Origins

Origin of fast food¹

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70

Origin of fast food²

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70

Example Sentences

State law already mandates that fast-food workers earn $20 an hour and healthcare workers earn at least $25 an hour — industry-specific minimum wages lobbied for by employee unions.

From Los Angeles Times

For skin-care products and fast-food restaurants and car manufacturers and car dealers, but especially for the Senate election between Montana Democrat Jon Tester, who has held the seat 18 years, and his Republican challenger, Tim Sheehy.

From Slate

What they want: Unions have landed big wins in recent years, including better protections for fast-food workers and setting a minimum wage for medical employees at $25 an hour.

From Los Angeles Times

The measure comes after a new state law mandates that fast-food workers earn $20 an hour and healthcare workers earn at least $25 an hour, and cities such as West Hollywood already require more than $19 an hour.

From Los Angeles Times

He pointed to a new study by the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley that showed higher fast-food salaries led to modest price increases, just cents on the hamburger, and did not lead to job cuts.

From Los Angeles Times

About This Word

​What does fast food mean?​

Fast food is food quickly prepared and served, often at chain restaurants and typically associated with less expensive and less nutritious items like hamburgers, french fries, and soft drinks.

Where does fast food come from?

The term fast food dates back to at least 1951, an industry term describing the new, and now ubiquitous, trend of restaurants providing food—fast. Its earliest use characterized service (e.g., fast-food service) before extending to the food served itself.

A prototype for fast-food restaurants were fish-and-chip shops in the U.K. starting in the 1860s. These provided quick, portable, and filling food on the go for dock workers and other city dwellers. In 1921, White Castle opened the first modern fast-food restaurant selling the now-familiar hamburgers and fries. In the 1950s, the term fast food emerged to describe this kind of grab-and-go meal available at new car-friendly restaurants such as McDonald’s, now synonymous with fast food across the globe.

Fast food had become so familiar, as a term and phenomenon, by the 1970s that fast food was used metaphorically for any mass-produced, cheap product (e.g., a fast-food education or the fast food of medicine).

How is fast food used in real life?

Fast food is widely used in speech and writing to refer to a meal or food item that is made and served quickly. It can be a noun (e.g., we ate fast food on our road trip) or adjective (e.g., fast-food fries are greasy but delicious).

Fast food typically connotes hamburgers and fries, as vended, often through drive-throughs, by leading brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. But, fast food also includes sandwiches (Subway), burritos (Chipotle), fried chicken (KFC), pizza (Pizza Hut), Chinese food (Panda Express), desserts (Dairy Queen), and even coffee (Starbucks). Especially in Europe, fast food notably includes kebabs, gyros, and fish and chips.

Because fast food has been historically unhealthy, it sparked a backlash movement in the late 1970s that advocated for slow food. The idea is that food that takes longer to prepare—and is not ultra-processed—is healthier. Today, fast-food companies have taken steps to make their offerings healthier by offering options like salads.

Given historically low wages and challenging work conditions, fast food has also been used to connote a mindless, dead-end job (e.g., He’ll end up flipping burgers at a fast-food joint).

More examples of fast food:

“Today is National Fast Food Day! Did you know Robert C. Baker, the inventor of the chicken nugget, was a Purdue alum?
—@LifeAtPurude, November 2017

“America’s fast-food desserts straddle two very different categories: our country’s most horrific edible disasters and our most cherished culinary treasures.”
—Daniela Galarza & Ryan Sutton, Eater, April, 2018

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.