café au lait

English

Alternative forms

• coffee au lait, cafe au lait

Etymology

Borrowed from French café au lait (literally “coffee with milk”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkæfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/, /kæˌfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

café au lait (countable and uncountable, plural café au laits or cafés au lait)

1. A mixture of coffee and hot milk.

   Coordinate terms: caffè latte, latte, café noir

   • 1985, Margaret Atwood, “Soul Scrolls”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 164:

     It was like using a language I'd once known but had nearly forgotten, a language having to do with customs that had long before passed out of the world: café au lait at an outdoor table, with a brioche, absinthe in a tall glass, or shrimp in a cornucopia of newspaper; things I'd once read about but had never seen.

2. Coffee and hot milk served in separate jugs as a breakfast drink.
3. A light coffee colour.

   café au lait:  

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 240:

     Seen all of a piece like this, in a picture that fits snugly into the lens of any camera, Kersey is a peaceful, multi-coloured Toytown of a village, whose red-tiled roofs are subdued by just the right amount of weathering and lichen, and whose overhanging gables thrust forward in a quiet brilliance of red-and-yellow ochre, pink, white and café-au-lait.

Usage notes

Oxford Canadian Spelling indicates the preferred plural form is cafés au lait.

Derived terms

• café au lait birthmark
• café au lait macule
• café au lait spot

Related terms

• café con leche
• caffè latte

Translations

coffee with milk

• Catalan: cafè amb llet (ca) m
• Dutch: koffie verkeerd (nl)
• Esperanto: laktokafo
• Finnish: ranskalainen maitokahvi, café au lait (fi)
• French: café au lait (fr)
• German: Milchkaffee (de) m
• Hebrew: קָפֶה הָפוּךְ (he) m (qafé hafúch)
• Italian: caffè latte, caffè e latte
• Japanese: カフェオレ (ja) (kafeore)
• Korean: 카페오레 (kape'ore)
• Malay: kopi susu
• Polish: café au lait, biała kawa f
• Portuguese: café com leite (pt)
• Spanish: café con leche (es) m
• Thai: กาเฟโอแล
• Turkish: sütlü kahve (tr)

colour

• Finnish: maitokahvi (fi)
• French: café au lait (fr) m or f

Danish

Alternative forms

• cafe au lait

Etymology

From French café au lait (“coffee with milk”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kafeolɛ/, [kʰafeoˈlɛ]

Noun

café au lait c (singular definite café au laiten or café au lait'en, plural indefinite café au laiter or café au lait'er)

1. café au lait

Inflection

Declension of café au lait

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	café au lait	café au laiten café au lait'en	café au laiter café au lait'er	café au laiterne café au lait'erne
genitive	café au laits	café au laitens café au lait'ens	café au laiters café au lait'ers	café au laiternes café au lait'ernes

Further reading

• “café au lait” in Den Danske Ordbog
• café au lait on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.fe o lɛ/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Agen)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Noun

café au lait m (plural cafés au lait)

1. white coffee, coffee with milk

   Deux cafés au lait, s'il vous plait.

   Two white coffees, please.

Coordinate terms

• latté

Descendants

• → Danish: café au lait
• → English: café au lait
• → Mandarin: 咖啡歐蕾 / 咖啡欧蕾 (kāfēiōulěi)
• → Japanese: カフェオレ (kafeore)

Adjective

café au lait (invariable)

1. light brown, café au lait

   une peau café au lait ― light brown skin

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French café au lait (“coffee with milk”). First attested in 1847.

Noun

café au lait c

1. café au lait, white coffee; a (brewed) coffee with (hot) milk

   Synonym: kaffe med mjölk

   En café au lait, tack. ― A café au lait, please.

   • 1847, Sophie von Knorring, Bref till hemmet, page 87:

     […] ty om Wien kan dock aldrig sägas för mycket, hvarken i godt eller ondt, stort, smått, praktfullt, eländigt, grannt eller smutsigt. Jag skrattade åt E., som om en utanför oändligen grann Caffé sade, när vi kommo in i rummen för att intaga vår frukost: ”Utvändigt är det café au lait, men invändigt café noir,” och så var verkligen förhållandet.

     […] for of Vienna one can never say too much, either good or bad, great or small, splendid or wretched, fine or filthy. I laughed at E., who, of a café that outwardly was endlessly handsome, said, when we entered the rooms to take our breakfast: “Outwardly it is café au lait, but inwardly café noir,” and such was indeed the case.

   • 2010 March 27, Martina Haag, “Hallå – vart tog café au lait vägen? [Hello – where did café au lait go?]”, in Aftonbladet (causerie):

     Och en annan grej som bara vips har försvunnit är café au lait! Plötsligt började alla människor säga caffe latte i stället. När? Hur? Varför?

     And another thing that has just suddenly disappeared is café au lait! Suddenly everyone started saying caffè latte instead. When? How? Why?

Usage notes

• The proportions of coffee to milk vary by location, but a common ratio is 50/50.

References

• “café au lait”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “café au lait”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)