<P> In an article in its August 2010 issue, Playboy magazine described a dive bar as: </P> <P> A church for down - and - outers and those who romanticize them, a rare place where high and low rub elbows--bums and poets, thieves and slumming celebrities . It's a place that wears its history proudly . </P> <P> The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary indicates that in the United States in the 1880s the term referred to an illegal drinking den or other place of ill repute, especially one located in a basement . This usage later became obsolete . </P> <P> One of the most popular shows on the Food Network is called Diners, Drive - Ins and Dives in which host Guy Fieri visits such places . </P>

Where does the term dive bar come from