mocha

Etymology

It is from English Mocha, the name of a port in Yemen near the entrance of the Red Sea,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} in Arabic اَلْمُخَا (al-Muḵā),^[2][1] from which the coffee was shipped.^[3][4][5][7] Etymonline notes that the beans themselves grew further inland.^[3] The OED suggests that the English word may have come by way of French, where “caffé de Moka” is recorded from 1751 and moka from 1767, and compares Italian moca (1858) and Portuguese moca (1873).^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English says that both the coffee and the leather were first shipped from the port.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fine coffee, originally that grown in or shipped from Yemen: 1773, in a letter by J. Pringle printed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give the same year.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the coffee itself the name passed to a flavouring made of coffee, or of coffee mixed with chocolate, used in cakes and desserts: Etymonline and Barnhart's Concise dictionary date this to 1849,^[3][9] while the OED and the full Barnhart first record it in 1892, of a cake.^[2][4] From 1895 the word named the dark brown colour of the coffee, first in a Montgomery Ward catalogue,^[2][3] and in the same year it was first used for a fine glove leather of sheepskin or goatskin.^[2] The drink of coffee combined with chocolate, also café mocha, is recorded from 1977.^[2] In American slang mocha was used of Black people from the 1940s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1773 – a fine coffee, originally from Yemen.^[2][3][4][5]
• 1849 – a flavouring of coffee and chocolate.^[3][9] The OED's first record, of a cake flavoured with coffee or with coffee and chocolate, is from 1892.^[2][4]
• 1895 – the colour of mocha coffee, a dark brown.^[2][3]
• 1895 – a fine glove leather, first as an adjective; the noun is recorded from 1909.^[2]
• 1977 – a drink of coffee mixed with chocolate.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fine arabica coffee grown in Arabia, or any coffee of superior quality.^[5][11][2]
2. A flavouring made of strong coffee, or of coffee mixed with chocolate or cocoa: a cake with a mocha filling.^[5][11][12]
3. A drink of coffee combined with chocolate; a café mocha.^[2]
4. A soft glove leather made from sheepskin or goatskin with a suede finish.^[5][11][2]
5. A dark brown colour.^[5][11][2]

Adjective

1. Flavoured with coffee, or with coffee and chocolate.^[2][11]
2. Dark brown: mocha boots.^[11][2]

Word family

• jamoke

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford have a separate entry Mocha for moss agate and similar stones (1679, also Mocha stone), probably named after the same port: inland Yemen is rich in agate, and Mocha was its chief seaport from the 16th to the 19th century.^[2][12] Hoad and Weekley also think the stone's name possibly or probably the same word.^[7][13] That entry also covers a brown and grey moth (1775), a kind of banded English pottery, Mocha ware (1837), and an East Anglian name for a cat with a black and brown coat (1847).^[2][14] The first OED edition (1907) gave only the pronunciation /ˈməʊkə/, still usual outside Britain; in Britain /ˈmɒkə/ replaced it from the 1970s, apparently after Italian moca.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)