46 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
Sorry, but hat does not accord with the linguistic evidence.
First you say you know the etymology then argue about the description of an American Diner, based on etymology. Don't think I can help you with that. But anyway hauling a rail car, horse cart, or streetcar onto a lot is as prefab as it gets. No I'm not going to dig up original sources but they were apparently manufacturing Lunch wagons by 1891. I don't think you can fix a cultural phenomenon to a point in time when it obviously is a concept that grew through the ages.
The comparison to British caffs is merely in terms of cultural setting. They are clearly not the same thing. But you did ask what defines a diner, not what the earliest representation was.
