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The Wikipedia page for barista says that the word "barista" means a male or female "bartender". To make it plural would be "baristi" for men or "bariste" for feminine

Is this typical for the singular version of a noun to refer to either men or women? Or is the word barista an exception?

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There's a class of nouns (mainly, but not necessarily, formed with suffixes of Greek origin): barista, autista; idiota, pilota; collega and so on, ending in a, that don't vary by gender in the singular but do in the plural. Barista is one of them: il/la barista, i baristi, le bariste

There's another class of nouns, ending in e: cantante, presidente; inglese, albanese; imbecille, debole, etc, that's don't vary by gender but do vary by number: il/la cantante, i/le cantanti.

Finally, there's a class of nouns (mostly borrowed from other languages or compound, usually ending in vowels other than o), that don't vary by number or gender: inca, aymara; madrelingua, baciapile and so on.

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    Even though the answer already tells this, I'd like to stress that in all those cases one must keep in mind the word's gender (even if the masculine and feminine forms are equal), in the agreement of articles, adjectives, pronouns etc.: il barista biondo / la barista bionda; c'era un barista e gli ho detto... / c'era una barista e le ho detto...
    – DaG
    Commented Nov 26 at 11:45

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