"long, elevated table where customers eat standing or sitting on high stools," 1854, American English; see lunch (n.) + counter (n.).
Entries linking to lunch-counter
lunch n.
"mid-day repast, small meal between breakfast and dinner," 1786, a shortened form of luncheon (q.v.) in this sense (1650s), which is of uncertain origin; it appears to be identical with an older word meaning "thick piece, hunk" (1570s), which perhaps evolved from lump (n.) [OED]. There also was a contemporary nuncheon "light mid-day meal," from noon + Middle English schench "drink." Old English had nonmete "afternoon meal," literally "noon-meat" (Middle English non-mete). The verb meaning "to take to lunch" (said to be from the noun) also is attested from 1786:
PRATTLE. I always to be ſure, makes a point to keep up the dignity of the family I lives in. Wou'd you take a more ſolid refreſhment?—Have you lunch'd, Mr. Bribe?
BRIBE. Lunch'd O dear! Permit me, my dear Mrs. Prattle, to refreſh my sponge, upon the honey dew that clings to your raviſhing pouters. O! Mrs. Prattle, this ſhall be my lunch. (kiſſes)
["The Mode," in William Davies' "Plays Written for a Private Theatre," London, 1786]
As late as 1817 the only definition of lunch (n.) in Webster's is "a large piece of food," but this is now obsolete or provincial. OED says in 1820s the word "was regarded either as a vulgarism or as a fashionable affectation." Related: Lunched; lunching.
Lunch money is attested from 1868. Lunch-time is from 1821; lunch hour is from 1840; lunch-break is from 1960. Slang phrase out to lunch "insane, stupid, clueless" first recorded 1955, on notion of being "not there."
counter n.1
mid-14c., "table where a money lender does business," from Old French contouer, comptoir "counting room; table or bench of a merchant or bank" (14c.), from Medieval Latin computatorium "place of accounts," from Latin computatus, past participle of computare "to count, sum up, reckon together" (see compute).
Generalized 19c. from banks to shops, then extended to display cases for goods. In reference to a similar construction in a home kitchen by 1875. Over-the-counter in reference to goods sold and money paid is by 1875; phrase under the counter in reference to illegal or clandestine transactions is by 1926.