قهوة

See also: قهوه and قہوہ

Arabic

Etymology

Derived by medieval philologists from the root ق ه ي (q-h-y), relating to satiety, with the meaning of "wine", explained by Ibn Manẓūr that "it was named thus since it surfeits the drinker of it and takes away his desire". The "coffee" sense is ultimately of disputed origin. According to Watkins, the original meaning could have been "dark stuff," related to Hebrew כָּהָה (“dull, weak, dim”), Aramaic ܩܗܐ (qəhā, “to be(come) blunt, to be(come) dull”), Arabic قَهِيَ (qahiya, “to be/become weak, lack hunger”).

Originally meaning a "brew", the word referred to mulled wine, and later to coffee, possibly since intoxicants were traditionally mixed and served hot in a similar manner to coffee, featuring many overlapping spices and the hospitality etiquette of modern-day Arab coffee culture. Culturally other words were re-purposed from wine to coffee with the advent of the traditionalist Muslim prohibition on intoxication. Other synonyms for "to brew" utilize the same trilateral roots as wine and intoxicants; see خ م ر (ḵ-m-r), meaning to cover over, presumably with hot water, to let sit, to steep, to let ferment or to give suitable time for food to be prepared for use.

Alternatively, some sources trace the term back to the Omotic Kaffa, the name of the region in Ethiopia where coffee was first grown; however, the word used to mean wine in earlier Arabic, more than half a millennium before this Kingdom existed, which makes any associations dubious.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /qah.wa/
  • (Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ʔah.wa/
  • (Hijazi, Gulf Arabic) IPA^(key): /ɡah.wa/
  • (Najdi) IPA^(key): /ɡha.wa/
  • (Levantine) IPA^(key): /ʔahwɛ/
  • (Hebron cities and villages) IPA^(key): /ɡahwɛ/
  • (Palestinian Fellahi) IPA^(key): /kahwɛ/
  • (Moroccan) IPA^(key): /qah.wa/

Noun

قَهْوَة • (qahwa) f (plural قَهَوَات (qahawāt) or قَهَاوٍ (qahāwin)) (usually uncountable)

1. (obsolete) wine
   • c. 800, إبراهيم بن المهدي, فما مزه قهوة قرقف شمولا تروق براووقها:

     فما مزه قهوة قرقف شمولا تروق براووقها

     What he slurps of wine from a bowl, it wholly gets strained by its sifter.

2. coffee (the drink)
3. (colloquial) coffee shop, café

Declension

Declension of noun قَهْوَة (qahwa)

Singular	singular triptote in ـَة (-a)
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	قَهْوَة qahwa	الْقَهْوَة al-qahwa	قَهْوَة qahwat
Nominative	قَهْوَةٌ qahwatun	الْقَهْوَةُ al-qahwatu	قَهْوَةُ qahwatu
Accusative	قَهْوَةً qahwatan	الْقَهْوَةَ al-qahwata	قَهْوَةَ qahwata
Genitive	قَهْوَةٍ qahwatin	الْقَهْوَةِ al-qahwati	قَهْوَةِ qahwati
Dual	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	قَهْوَتَيْن qahwatayn	الْقَهْوَتَيْن al-qahwatayn	قَهْوَتَيْ qahwatay
Nominative	قَهْوَتَانِ qahwatāni	الْقَهْوَتَانِ al-qahwatāni	قَهْوَتَا qahwatā
Accusative	قَهْوَتَيْنِ qahwatayni	الْقَهْوَتَيْنِ al-qahwatayni	قَهْوَتَيْ qahwatay
Genitive	قَهْوَتَيْنِ qahwatayni	الْقَهْوَتَيْنِ al-qahwatayni	قَهْوَتَيْ qahwatay
Plural	sound feminine plural‎; broken plural diptote in ـٍ (-in)
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	قَهَوَات‎; قَهَاوِي qahawāt‎; qahāwī	الْقَهَوَات‎; الْقَهَاوِي al-qahawāt‎; al-qahāwī	قَهَوَات‎; قَهَاوِي qahawāt‎; qahāwī
Nominative	قَهَوَاتٌ‎; قَهَاوٍ qahawātun‎; qahāwin	الْقَهَوَاتُ‎; الْقَهَاوِي al-qahawātu‎; al-qahāwī	قَهَوَاتُ‎; قَهَاوِي qahawātu‎; qahāwī
Accusative	قَهَوَاتٍ‎; قَهَاوِيَ qahawātin‎; qahāwiya	الْقَهَوَاتِ‎; الْقَهَاوِيَ al-qahawāti‎; al-qahāwiya	قَهَوَاتِ‎; قَهَاوِيَ qahawāti‎; qahāwiya
Genitive	قَهَوَاتٍ‎; قَهَاوٍ qahawātin‎; qahāwin	الْقَهَوَاتِ‎; الْقَهَاوِي al-qahawāti‎; al-qahāwī	قَهَوَاتِ‎; قَهَاوِي qahawāti‎; qahāwī

Derived terms

• مَقْهًى m (maqhan)

Related terms

• أَقْهَى (ʔaqhā)

Descendants

• → Azerbaijani: qəhvə
• → Bashkir: ҡәһүә (qəhwə)
• → Chagatai: قهوه
  • Uyghur: قەھۋە (qehwe)
  • Uzbek: qahva
• → French: caoua, cahoua, kahoua, kawa
• → Ge'ez: ቃሕዋ (ḳaḥwa)
• → Hebrew: קַהְוָה (kahvá)
• → Japanese: カフワ (kafuwa)
• → Lishana Deni: קהוא (qahwa)
• → Malay: kahwa
  • → Maranao: kahawa
  • → Tausug: kahawa
  • → Yakan: kahawa
• → Ottoman Turkish: قهوه (kahve) (see there for further descendants)
• → Pashto: قهوه (qahwa)
• → Persian: قهوه (qahve)
  • Tajik: қаҳва (qahva)
  • → Gujarati: કહવા (kahvā)
  • → Hindustani:
    • Hindi: क़हवा (qahvā)
    • Urdu: قَہْوَہ (qahva)
  • → Punjabi: قَہْوَہ (qahvah)
  • → Sindhi: قَهِوو (qahivo)
• → Swahili: kahawa
• → Tatar: каһвә (qahwä)

See also

• بُنّ m (bunn)
• شَاي m (šāy)
• نَبِيذ m (nabīḏ)

References

• Freytag, Georg (1835) “قهوة”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 511
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “قهوة”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎^[2] (in French), volume 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 829
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “قهوة”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, pages 929–930

Further reading

• “coffee”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa).

Noun

قهوة • (ʔahwa) f

1. coffee
2. coffee shop

Gulf Arabic

Alternative forms

• گهوة

Etymology

From Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa).

Pronunciation

• (Kuwait) IPA^(key): /ˈɡəh.wə/
• (Ghawa syndrome) IPA^(key): /ˈɡha.wa/

Noun

قهوة • (gəhwə) f (plural قهاوي (gəhawi))

1. coffee shop, a traditional social gathering places where men gather.
2. (rare) café

   Synonym: كافيه (kafe)

Noun

قهوة • (gəhwə) f (plural قهوات (gəhwat))

1. coffee

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡah.wa/

Noun

قهوة • (gahwa) f (plural قهوات (gahwāt))

1. coffee
2. (rare) coffee shop, café

See also

• بُن m (bunn, “coffee beans”)

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /qah.wa/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

قهوة • (qahwa) f (plural قهوات (qahwāt))

1. coffee

Noun

قهوة • (qahwa) f (plural قهاوي (qhāwi))

1. coffee shop, café

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔah.we/, [ˈʔah.we]
• IPA^(key): /ʔah.wa/, [ˈʔah.wa]

• Audio (Bethlehem)

  (file)

Noun

قهوة • (ʔahwe) f (plural قهاوي (ʔahāwi))

1. coffee
2. café, coffee shop, coffeehouse

   Synonym: مقهى (maʔha)

See also

• بن (binn, “coffee beans”)
• قهوة مرة (ʔahwe murra, “unsweetened coffee”, literally “bitter coffee”)
• قهوة سادة (ʔahwe sāda, “coffee without milk and sugar”, literally “plain coffee”)