What it means to a bartender (7)
I believe the answer is:
italian
'bartender' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'what it means to a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found in the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for italian that I've seen before include "From Bologna?" , "Like Puccini" , "Is Ali anti, strangely, this nationality?" , "Nationality of benito or Giuseppe" , "'From Milan or Venice, say (7)'" .)