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cafetero

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word cafetero

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1767 More words from the 18th century
Ultimate origins
Ottoman Turkish قهوهSpanish -ero
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French café
English cafe
Spanish café
Spanish cafetero

Pronunciation

  • /kafeˈteɾo/, [ka.feˈt̪e.ɾo][1]

Forms

cafetero (feminine cafetera, masculine plural cafeteros, feminine plural cafeteras)[1]

Etymology

It is from Spanish café + -ero, with an interfix ⟨-t-⟩.[2][1] The BDELC dates it to 1765–1783 and notes that it was also applied to the coffee shrub, from which cafeto (1836) was taken, on the model of manzano beside manzanero.[3] The DHLE traces the use for the tree to Valcárcel's Agricultura general (1795), which adapted Valmont de Bomare's French caffier for it.[2] The feminine cafetera “coffee pot” is recorded from 1729 and was taken from the French cafetière.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLE's first record, of 1767, is for a person who prepares, serves or sells coffee or keeps a coffee house.[2] Boyd-Bowman's first record from the Americas, Lima 1791, speaks of the considerable profits of the cafeteros.[4]

Semantic evolution

The DHLE dates the street seller of coffee from 1835, the adjective “of coffee” from 1848 and the coffee grower from 1861.[2] The dictionaries first record the word in the 1849 supplement to Domínguez, in the sense “coffee tree”.[2] Domínguez and Salvá in 1846 and the Academy in 1869 have the keeper of a coffee house, and the Academy added the street vendor in 1884.[5][6][7][8] The tree sense survives in the Canaries.[9]

The DLE now lists the adjective, the person very fond of coffee, the coffee picker, the owner of a café, the street seller and the coffee trader.[10] In Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic a cafetero is a coffee grower; in the sports journalism of El Salvador, Peru, Chile and Paraguay cafetero means Colombian.[11][10] Santamaría records the coffee drinker in 1942.[12]

Timeline

  • 1765–1783 – Corominas's date for the word.[3]
  • 1767 – first record, “person who makes, serves or sells coffee”.[2]
  • 1791 – recorded in Lima.[4]
  • 1795 – Valcárcel uses it for the coffee tree.[2]
  • 1835 – “street seller of coffee”.[2]
  • 1848 – the adjective “of coffee”.[2]
  • 1849 – first in a dictionary, the supplement to Domínguez.[2]
  • 1861 – “coffee grower”.[2]
  • 1869 – first in the Academy's dictionary, as the keeper of a coffee house.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to coffee (café): La cosecha cafetera fue buena este año.[10][13][1]
  2. Of a person: very fond of drinking coffee; also as a noun.[10][13]
  3. (sports journalism, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Paraguay) Colombian (colombiano).[11]

Noun

  1. A coffee picker, who gathers the beans in the plantations (cafetales) at harvest time.[10][13]
  2. The owner of a café or coffee house.[10]
  3. A person who sells coffee in a public place.[10]
  4. A coffee merchant.[10][13]
  5. (Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela) A coffee grower, a caficultor.[10][11]
  6. (Canary Islands) The coffee tree.[9]
  7. (feminine cafetera) A coffee pot or coffee maker;[13] (colloquial) an old, noisy vehicle.[10][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. cafetero
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. café
  4. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cafetero
  5. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 309
  6. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 187
  7. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 133
  8. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 185
  9. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. cafetero
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cafetero
  11. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cafetero
  12. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 264
  13. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cafetero
Cite this entry

“Cafetero.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/cafetero. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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