Etymology of Coffee
The history of the word coffee for the coffee beverage is complex and difficult to verify. Most accounts say that the Europeans got the name around 1600 from the Arabic qahwah, not directly but via the Turkish form kahveh.
It's also been conjectured that the word is perhaps a disguised African word associated with the name Kaffa, a town in southwest Abyssinia, the reputed native place of the coffee plant. However, there's no evidence that the name qahwah is not given to the berry or plant which is called bunn, the native name in Shoa being bun.
There are various etymologies, but it remains a fact that the word coffee comes from an Arabian word and that the peoples who have adopted the drink have all modified the Arabian word to suit their pronunciation.
French - cafe
German - kaffee
Dutch - koffie
Finnish - kahvi
Croation - kafa
Russian - kophe
Swedish - kaffe
Spanish - cafe
Turkish - kahue
Chinese - kia-fey
Abyssinian - bonn
Esperanto - kafva
Source: All About COFFEE by William H. Ukers
Questions? Contact Us
Please contact us per e-mail.