coffee

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See also: coffée

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
roasted coffee beans
coffee (beverage)

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Dutch koffie (“coffee”), from Italian caffè (“coffee”), from Ottoman Turkish قهوه‎ (kahve, “coffee”), from Arabic قَهْوَة‎ (qahwa, “coffee, a brew”).[1][2] The Arabic word originally referred to wine, a drink which was traditionally mixed and served hot in a similar manner. In Arabic "to brew" utilizes the same triliteral root as wine and intoxicant; see خ م ر‎ (ḵ-m-r) "to cover over", presumably with hot water. Other sources instead claim it traces back to the name of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia, which is an Omotic word. 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.[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

coffee (countable and uncountable, plural coffees) [from 1598] [2]

  1. (uncountable) A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v:
      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 […].
    • 1672, Thomas Shadwell, The Miser: A Comedy, […], London: […] Thomas Collins and John Ford, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
      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.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      "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.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      […] 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.
  2. (countable) A serving of this beverage.
    • 2008 April 12, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian:
      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.
  3. The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, called ‘beans’ due to their shape.
  4. The powder made by roasting and grinding the seeds.
  5. A tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
  6. A pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
    coffee:  
  7. The end of a meal, when coffee is served.
    He did not stay for coffee.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Descendants

Translations[edit]

See coffee/translations § Noun.

Adjective[edit]

coffee (not comparable)

  1. Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
  2. Of a table: a small, low table suitable for people in lounge seating to put coffee cups on.

Translations[edit]

See coffee/translations § Adjective.

Verb[edit]

coffee (third-person singular simple present coffees, present participle coffeeing or coffee-ing, simple past and past participle coffeed or coffee'd or coffee-ed)

  1. (intransitive) To drink coffee.
    • 1839, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker:
      I rushed into my cabin, coffeed, wined, and went to bed sobbing.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 1912, Pearson’s Magazine, page 225:
      We had coffee’d with the scoundrel […]
    • 1935 June 29, Ellen Snebley, “Teapot Tattle”, in Santa Ana Journal, volume 1, number 52, Santa Ana, Calif., page eight:
      Mr. and Mrs. Ted Craig (he[sic] speaker of the assembly) emerging from a popular drive-in after having sandwiched and coffeed . . .
    • 1942, Ralph Straus, editor, Sala: The Portrait of an Eminent Victorian, page 228:
      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.
    • 1956 January 24, Journal of François Mignon, page 7794:
      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.
    • 1965, Thea Astley, The Slow Natives, page 196:
      He coffeed and sandwiched along the highway.
    • 1969, Western Fisheries, page 51:
      A while back while coffee-ing with friends, the men were discussing new water tanks, the different makes, costs, etc.
    • 1972, Audience, page 80:
      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.
    • 1973, Experiences in Rural Mental Health: Developing Citizen Participation, page 25:
      We sat and coffee’d with people in the living room.
    • 1976, William Goldman, Magic, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 10:
      “Can I at least make you some coffee?” “I’m not in the habit of coffee-ing with strange women.”
    • 1976, Telephone Engineer & Management, page 56:
      Jack Herington “coffee-d” with delegates on Wednesday morning.
    • 1980, Robert H. Morneau; Robert R. Rockwell, Sex, Motivation, and the Criminal Offender, page 136:
      She took care of a modest house, “coffee’d” with her neighbors while the husband slept late in the mornings.
    • 1982, Daisy Hepburn, “The Farmer”, in Lead, Follow Or Get Out of the Way!, Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, page 98:
      While watching television or coffee-ing with a neighbor tape all your wonderful stuff onto 8½-by-11-inch sheets of paper.
    • 1983, Horseless Carriage Gazette, page 14:
      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.
    • 2002, Rachel Cohn, Gingerbread, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, pages 64–65:
      “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.
    • 2005, Larry Baker, Athens, America, First Coast Books, →ISBN, page 252:
      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, […].
    • 2008, Rebecca Schoenkopf, Commie Girl in the OC, London; New York: Verso, →ISBN, pages 11–12:
      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.
    • 2010, Jeff Collignon, The Glass Eye of Hell, →ISBN, page 160:
      Stopped at a 7/eleven, coffee-ed up, washed down four dex, hit the Interstate.
    • 2010, Patrick Day, Too Late in the Afternoon: One Man's Triumph Over Depression:
      It was exactly 11 a.m. We had been coffeeing for one hour, and our coffee cups were empty.
    • 2010, N.S. David, TLC (Tranquility Logistics Corporation), AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 31:
      Very little was spoken as they coffee-ed up and she cut the peppers.
    • 2011, Terrence Douglas, “Dead Princess”, in Does a Footstep Linger?, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 55:
      Woke to Ravel’s Pavane For Dead Princess, / Coffee-ed with Simone’s I Get Along Without You Very Well – of course I do.
    • 2013, Kat Meads, 2:12 a.m., Nacogdoches, Tex.: Stephen F. Austin State University Press, page 65:
      I, myself, have been awake since three, dressed since four, coffee-ed up since five.
    • 2013, Bett Taylor, “The Operation”, in Coffee Breaks, Short Stories and Poems, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 113:
      “Hi! Didn’t think you would be coffee-ing again. Out and about so soon after your op?”
    • 2013, Johnny D. Boggs, Hard Winter: A Western Story, Skyhorse Publishing:
      Well, one morning after I had coffee-ed up and went to fork hay into the corrals, I spied a rider.
    • 2015, Wednesday Martin, “Introduction”, in Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, page 8:
      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.
    • 2016, Doug Jordan, The Maxim Chronicles: A Year with a Champion Poodle, AFS Publishing, →ISBN, page 181:
      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.
    • 2019, Melanie Dimmitt, Special: Antidotes to the Obsessions That Come with a Child’s Disability, Ventura Press, →ISBN:
      ‘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.
    • 2020, Rebecca Crowley, Off the Record (The London Phoenix Series), Tule Publishing, →ISBN:
      “[…] 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.
    • 2021, Diane E. Peeling, “I Am”, in Connected Life Awareness, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights, →ISBN, page 6:
      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 January 28, The Jerusalem Post‎[1]:
      Three Ladies, Three Lattes: Still coffee-ing after all these years
  2. (transitive) To give coffee.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 1929, Howard W[allace] Peak, A Ranger of Commerce or 52 Years on the Road, page 87:
      There we were met by enterprising citizens and coffeed and sandwiched by pretty girls.
    • 1942 August 31, “Who Clipped the Soldiers’—Hair?”, in Harrisburg Telegraph, volume CXII, number 206, Harrisburg, Pa., second section, page 9:
      Five soldiers had been sandwiched and coffeed at the Elks canteen, were a little short of money, needed haircuts.
    • 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:
      I write this on the kitchen table at the home of the kind Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Ebert, who sandwiched and coffee’d me.
    • 1964 October 13, Gene Cowles, Valley Times, volume 27, number 246, San Fernando Valley, Calif., page 15:
      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.
    • 1973, Pamphlets on Forestry in California, page 225:
      Ray Hughes and Shirley and Martin Johnson, new owners of “John and Mable’s, “coffeed” me and listened to my story.
    • 1975 October 14, Kathleen Merryman, “Freedom Train fires up parties”, in The Billings Gazette, 90th year, number 165, Billings, Mont., page 11-A:
      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.
    • 1976 August 28, Joan Flanagan, “cassidy’s mob”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 43,275, page 14:
      “In the daytimes, he fixes things for people,” I said, “and in return they keep him sandwiched and coffeed.”
    • 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:
      They fed him and coffee’d him and kept him talking until his throat was sore and it had been long dark for hours.
    • 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:
      That afternoon at the House Rock Valley Store, the time John Schoppmann coffeed me and Bob, […]
    • 2014, Steve Ulfelder, chapter 58, in Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage: A Conway Sax Mystery, Minotaur Books, →ISBN, page 305:
      You all fed me and coffee’d me and warmed me up.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “coffee”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “coffee, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021.

Further reading[edit]

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