Etymology tree
Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa)bor.
Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve)bor.
Italian caffèbor.
Dutch koffiebor.
English coffee
Borrowed from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa). Doublet of café and caffè and cognate with the words for "coffee" in other major European languages, most of which are derived from the Turkish and Italian words.
Meanings
(not-comparable) Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
(not-comparable) Of a table: a small, low table suitable for people in lounge seating to put coffee cups on.
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
coffée
alternative, rare
lexicographic
Translations (30)
nl mokka (of a pale brown colour) · is kaffibrúnn (of a pale brown colour) · ja 珈琲色の (of a pale brown colour) · de kaffeefarben (of a pale brown colour) · ja コーヒー色の (of a pale brown colour) · he קפה (of a pale brown colour) · de kaffeebraun (of a pale brown colour) · es café (of a pale brown colour) · pt café (of a pale brown colour) · sw kahawa (of a pale brown colour) · it marrone (of a pale brown colour) · fi kahvinruskea (of a pale brown colour) · zh 咖啡色 (of a pale brown colour) · hy սրճագույն (of a pale brown colour) · fr café (of a pale brown colour) · hu kávébarna (of a pale brown colour) · ms kopi (of a pale brown colour) · vi màu cà phê (of a pale brown colour) · et kohvikarva (of a pale brown colour) · vo kafakölik (of a pale brown colour) · ru кофейный (of a pale brown colour) · de kaffeefarbig (of a pale brown colour) · nl koffiebruin (of a pale brown colour) · pl kawowy (of a pale brown colour) · fa قهوهای (of a pale brown colour) · ca cafè (of a pale brown colour) · et kohvipruun (of a pale brown colour) · vo kafabraunik (of a pale brown colour) · ckb قاوەیی (of a pale brown colour) · ca marró (of a pale brown colour)
coffee en · NOUN
Pronunciation
/ˈkɔfi/ General American, without the cot–caught merger, lot–cloth split
Etymology tree
Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa)bor.
Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve)bor.
Italian caffèbor.
Dutch koffiebor.
English coffee
Borrowed from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa). Doublet of café and caffè and cognate with the words for "coffee" in other major European languages, most of which are derived from the Turkish and Italian words.
Meanings
(uncountable) A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
The Turks have a drink called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter[…], which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can suffer[…]. 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v:
"He was here," observed Drina composedly, "and father was angry with him." / "What?" exclaimed Eileen. "When?" / "This morning, before father went downtown." / Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served—cambric tea in Drina's case. 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
[…]a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain[…]shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”:[…]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property. 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
VVhat a devil makes thee in ſo muſty a humour? Thou art as dull and dumpiſh as a fellovv that had been drunk over night vvith Ale, and had done nothing but drunk Coffee, talked Politicks, and read Gazettes all this morning. 1672, Thomas Shadwell, The Miser: A Comedy, […], London: […] Thomas Collins and John Ford, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
He and his friends used to order coffee whenever they went out.
The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel, for where coffee is used as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known. 1848, J. S. Skinner & Son, editor, The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil, volume I, Philadelphia: J. S. Skinner & Son, page 137:
(countable) A serving of this beverage.
As I sip a coffee at Brasserie Balzar, two well-known intellectuals, one publisher and a Sorbonne professor were discussing Sarkozy's future: "He won't finish his mandate" says one. 2008 April 12, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian:
(countable, uncountable) The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, called ‘beans’ due to their shape.
(countable, uncountable) The powder made by roasting and grinding the seeds.
(countable, uncountable) A tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
(countable, uncountable) A pale brown color, like that of milky coffee.
(countable, uncountable) The end of a meal, when coffee is served.
Etymology tree
Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa)bor.
Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve)bor.
Italian caffèbor.
Dutch koffiebor.
English coffee
Borrowed from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa). Doublet of café and caffè and cognate with the words for "coffee" in other major European languages, most of which are derived from the Turkish and Italian words.
Meanings
(intransitive) To drink coffee.
When Sala sits for Lambeth, then what can’t the House discuss? / He has coffee’d with the Moslem, he has tea’d it with the Russ; / He can analyze the natives from Granada to New York; / He has tasted pumpkin squashes! he can speak the tongue of Cork. 1942, Ralph Straus, editor, Sala: The Portrait of an Eminent Victorian, page 228:
‘Especially when it’s something you can’t change, looking to where someone else is and trying to compare is only going to make you feel that sense of crushing disappointment, or feeling like you’re so far away from what you would have ideally wanted,’ says Cassie Mendoza-Jones, the kinesiologist we coffee’d with in Chapter 7. 2019, Melanie Dimmitt, Special: Antidotes to the Obsessions That Come with a Child’s Disability, Ventura Press, →ISBN:
It embarrassed Glover that when his wife coffee’d with a neighbor in the kitchen she had to leave the oven going with the door open to keep the place livable. 1972, Audience, page 80:
Mr. and Mrs. Ted Craig (he^([sic]) speaker of the assembly) emerging from a popular drive-in after having sandwiched and coffeed . . . 1935 June 29, Ellen Snebley, “Teapot Tattle”, in Santa Ana Journal, volume 1, number 52, Santa Ana, Calif., page eight:
The country club where we coffee’d was hushed, even desolate on a rainy morning—the dark woods you would expect, the sweet selection of teas. 2008, Rebecca Schoenkopf, Commie Girl in the OC, London; New York: Verso, →ISBN, pages 11–12:
I am glad you didn’t yell at me when I dinged your car, I am glad you taught me to cook for large groups, I am glad that we coffee’d until all hours. 2021, Diane E. Peeling, “I Am”, in Connected Life Awareness, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights, →ISBN, page 6:
Madelyn was awake around 6:30 but she was only six months old and had not yet developed pre-Christmas excitement; Michael got her changed and bottled up (and himself coffee-ed up) well before anybody else stirred. 2016, Doug Jordan, The Maxim Chronicles: A Year with a Champion Poodle, AFS Publishing, →ISBN, page 181:
She took care of a modest house, “coffee’d” with her neighbors while the husband slept late in the mornings. 1980, Robert H. Morneau, Robert R. Rockwell, Sex, Motivation, and the Criminal Offender, page 136:
“[…]The two of you should get together for coffee one of these days. I’ll introduce you after the service.” “Sure, Gran,” Sophie said easily, well used to these monthly matchmaking efforts. Ealing was in fact rather far, and frankly she had no intention of coffee-ing with Mark Bloom either way, but she’d long learned it was best just to nod along with her grandmother’s non-stop attempts to marry her off. 2020, Rebecca Crowley, Off the Record (The London Phoenix Series), Tule Publishing, →ISBN:
I, myself, have been awake since three, dressed since four, coffee-ed up since five. 2013, Kat Meads, 2:12 a.m., Nacogdoches, Tex.: Stephen F. Austin State University Press, page 65:
Three Ladies, Three Lattes: Still coffee-ing after all these years 2021 January 28, The Jerusalem Post:
They had been at the HyVee deli that night, coffee’ed up and continuing a late night discussion of angels on the heads of pins, or whatever Episcopalians discuss, three wise men who had walked out of the HyVee to enjoy the warm September air,[…]. 2005, Larry Baker, Athens, America, First Coast Books, →ISBN, page 252:
Very little was spoken as they coffee-ed up and she cut the peppers. 2010, N.S. David, TLC (Tranquility Logistics Corporation), AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 31:
Stopped at a 7/eleven, coffee-ed up, washed down four dex, hit the Interstate. 2010, Jeff Collignon, The Glass Eye of Hell, →ISBN, page 160:
In the afternoon with Hilda and suite in three Einspänner to just beyond Pontresina; we got out and crossed the bridge over the Bernina to Sans Souci Café, where we coffee'''’d. 1900, Clement Kinloch-Cooke, editor, A Memoir of Her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck: Based on Her Private Diaries and Letters, page 224:
We had coffee’d with the scoundrel[…] 1912, Pearson’s Magazine, page 225:
“Can I at least make you some coffee?” “I’m not in the habit of coffee-ing with strange women.” 1976, William Goldman, Magic, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 10:
I rushed into my cabin, coffeed, wined, and went to bed sobbing. 1839, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker:
Well, one morning after I had coffee-ed up and went to fork hay into the corrals, I spied a rider. 2013, Johnny D. Boggs, Hard Winter: A Western Story, Skyhorse Publishing:
Jack Herington “coffee-d” with delegates on Wednesday morning. 1976, Telephone Engineer & Management, page 56:
We sat and coffee’d with people in the living room. 1973, Experiences in Rural Mental Health: Developing Citizen Participation, page 25:
We coffee’d in a park, we found a stream and pond for lunch and for Mike Roberts to shoot Stanley’s siphoning water and sort of bumped and lazed along on roads with Brete Hart and Mark Twain names. 1983, Horseless Carriage Gazette, page 14:
“Hi! Didn’t think you would be coffee-ing again. Out and about so soon after your op?” 2013, Bett Taylor, “The Operation”, in Coffee Breaks, Short Stories and Poems, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 113:
He coffeed and sandwiched along the highway. 1965, Thea Astley, The Slow Natives, page 196:
From my base camp, I went to Mommy & Me groups, applied to exclusive music classes, wrangled with nannies, coffee’d with other mothers, and “auditioned” at preschools, for my firstborn son and then his little brother. 2015, Wednesday Martin, “Introduction”, in Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, page 8:
I coffee-ed with your girl friend this morning, her daughter having long since gone to town to make some final arrangements about a Catholic Daughters' frolic for tonight. 1956 January 24, Journal of François Mignon, page 7794:
While watching television or coffee-ing with a neighbor tape all your wonderful stuff onto 8½-by-11-inch sheets of paper. 1982, Daisy Hepburn, “The Farmer”, in Lead, Follow Or Get Out of the Way!, Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, page 98:
Woke to Ravel’s Pavane For Dead Princess, / Coffee-ed with Simone’s I Get Along Without You Very Well – of course I do. 2011, Terrence Douglas, “Dead Princess”, in Does a Footstep Linger?, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 55:
“At least my parents stick around!” I said back as I paced. I instantly regretted my comeback but that’s the thing about unkind words: You can try to undo the damage, but (a) it’s hard when you’re all coffee-ed up, and (b) you can’t take it back, ever. 2002, Rachel Cohn, Gingerbread, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, pages 64–65:
It was exactly 11 a.m. We had been coffeeing for one hour, and our coffee cups were empty. 2010, Patrick Day, Too Late in the Afternoon: One Man's Triumph Over Depression:
A while back while coffee-ing with friends, the men were discussing new water tanks, the different makes, costs, etc. 1969, Western Fisheries, page 51:
(transitive) To give coffee to.
That afternoon at the House Rock Valley Store, the time John Schoppmann coffeed me and Bob,[…] 2005, Michael F. Anderson, editor, A Gathering of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments, and First-Person Accounts: Proceedings of the Inaugural Grand Canyon History Symposium, January 2002, Grand Canyon Association, →ISBN, page 55:
I write this on the kitchen table at the home of the kind Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Ebert, who sandwiched and coffee’d me. 1959 October 7, Charles House, “Charlie Pauses at 75-Mile Mark To Recount Latest Adventures”, in Appleton Post-Crescent, volume LI, number 88, Appleton-Neenah-Menasha, Wis., section “Coffee Break”, page A16:
Mrs. Robert (Helen) Adickes, of Flintridge, mate of the chairman of the Pilots For Goldwater committee, was in there pitching as usual seeing that everyone was fed and coffeed or, in the case of the young colts and fillies, sandwiched and popped. 1964 October 13, Gene Cowles, Valley Times, volume 27, number 246, San Fernando Valley, Calif., page 15:
Five soldiers had been sandwiched and coffeed at the Elks canteen, were a little short of money, needed haircuts. 1942 August 31, “Who Clipped the Soldiers’—Hair?”, in Harrisburg Telegraph, volume CXII, number 206, Harrisburg, Pa., second section, page 9:
There we were met by enterprising citizens and coffeed and sandwiched by pretty girls. 1929, Howard W[allace] Peak, A Ranger of Commerce or 52 Years on the Road, page 87:
Hostesses like Laurie McCormack, who’s used to keeping politicians, press and businessmen coffeed and sandwiched on special visits to the train, sat back and let Jay Montague and other merchants reverse roles. 1975 October 14, Kathleen Merryman, “Freedom Train fires up parties”, in The Billings Gazette, 90th year, number 165, Billings, Mont., page 11-A:
The association of veteran firemen, which has a membership of 200, kept open house for New Year callers, and all comers were bountifully sandwiched and coffeed. 1897 January 7, “City’s Veteran Firemen. New Year Reception. The Rooms of the Association Filled with Guests. Reminiscences, Reunion, and Refreshments,”, in The Pittsfield Sun, volume 97, number 26, Pittsfield, Mass., page 7:
You all fed me and coffee’d me and warmed me up. 2014, Steve Ulfelder, chapter 58, in Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage: A Conway Sax Mystery, Minotaur Books, →ISBN, page 305:
Here at Camp Wheeler we “coffeed” and “sandwiched” the drafted men when they came from Camp Gordon several weeks ago, and the men from Camp Pike more recently. 1917 November 11, Dumas Malone, “The Ring and the Red Triangle: How the Men Who Wear the New Insignia Go With the Army”, in The Macon Daily Telegraph, Macon, Ga., first section, article section “The Ever-Ready Hut”, page four:
They fed him and coffee’d him and kept him talking until his throat was sore and it had been long dark for hours. 1997, Terry C. Johnston, Wolf Mountain Moon: The Fort Peck Expedition, the Fight at Ash Creek, and the Battle of the Butte—January 8, 1877, Bantam Books, page 397:
Ray Hughes and Shirley and Martin Johnson, new owners of “John and Mable’s, “coffeed” me and listened to my story. 1973, Pamphlets on Forestry in California, page 225:
“In the daytimes, he fixes things for people,” I said, “and in return they keep him sandwiched and coffeed.” 1976 August 28, Joan Flanagan, “cassidy’s mob”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 43,275, page 14: