The term “dive” dates from London in the 19th century, when young men wanted a livelier place in which to spend their afternoons than the gentlemen's clubs frequented by their fathers. They formed informal clubs, where they gathered to smoke and drink coffee.

The Shorter Oxford English Dicitionary 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.