caffè

Forms

caffè m (invariable, diminutive-derogatory caffeùccio (“café”))^[1] Early forms include cavèe (1585), cahve (1614) and cafè (1615); caffè is recorded from 1637.^[2][3] In Gregorio Leti the coffee house is a cafeo.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa), which first meant “wine” or a stimulating drink and was used in Yemen for coffee from the end of the 14th century.^[2][3][5][1] The word spread in Italy from Venice, the city that traded with the Ottoman Empire, where it is first recorded.^[5][2] It spread throughout the world, adapted to each language, as in French café and Spanish café.^[3]

The sense “coffee house” is a calque of the French word, which had this meaning by 1694.^[2][6] Eighteenth-century Italian also had a longer phrase, “coffee shop”, which purists of the 19th century preferred, but the short form won.^[2] The Italian Wiktionary repeats the story that the drink takes its name from the kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, which the other sources do not mention.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian description of coffee is in a report of 1585 to the Venetian Senate by the ambassador Gianfrancesco Morosini, who saw the Turks drink in public “a black water, as hot as they can bear, drawn from a seed they call cavèe” (un'acqua negra bollente quanto possono sofferire, che si cava d'una semente che chiaman cavèe).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word named the plant, its seed and the drink: Francesco Redi wrote of the drink in 1666 and asked a correspondent in Livorno which plant produced the beans.^[2][9] The first record of the sense “coffee house” is from 1696.^[2] In Venice a bottega da acque of 1713 later became the Caffè di Spadaria.^[4] Many derivatives were modelled on French: caffeina and caffettiere follow caféine and cafetier, and caffè concerto follows café-concert.^[2][3]

Modern Italian has a long series of names for kinds of coffee, such as caffè espresso, caffè macchiato, caffè corretto and caffè ristretto, and uses the word as an adjective for a dark brown colour.^[10][11] English uses caffè for Italian-style coffee, and Wiktionary lists the Italian word as the source of words for coffee in several languages, among them French, Spanish and Dutch.^[1] DIFIT marks the link with French as doubtful: the TLF derives French café (1610) from Turkish or Venetian.^[12]

Timeline

• 1585 – Gianfrancesco Morosini describes the drink and its seed, cavèe.^[2][10]
• 1614 – The form cahve is recorded.^[3]
• 1615 – Cafè is recorded in Venice.^[3][5]
• 1637 – The form caffè is first recorded.^[3]
• 1666 – Francesco Redi writes of the drink.^[2][12]
• 1696 – First record of the sense “coffee house”.^[2][12]
• 1711 – Caffettiera “coffee pot” appears in Lorenzo Magalotti.^[2]
• 1754 – Caffetteria is recorded.^[2]
• 1832 – Caffellatte is first recorded.^[3]
• 1865 – Caffeina appears in the Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The coffee plant (Coffea arabica), an evergreen shrub of the madder family, native to Africa, with white flowers and red berries.^[10][6][13]
2. The seeds of this plant, raw, roasted or ground: Compro mezzo chilo di caffè macinato.^[10][14]
3. The dark, aromatic drink made from the roasted, ground seeds, and a cup of it: Ci vediamo dopo per un caffè?^[10][6][11]
4. A similar drink made from substitutes, as in caffè d'orzo (barley coffee).^[10][13]
5. A café, a public place serving coffee and other drinks.^[10][14][13]
6. A dark golden brown colour.^[10]

Adjective

1. Of the colour of roasted coffee, after its noun: una borsa caffè.^[10][14][13]

Word family

• caffeina
• caffellatte
• caffetteria
• caffettiera
• caffettiere
• caffeario
• caffeicolo
• caffeismo
• decaffeinare

Related words

• ammazzacaffè
• French café

Usage notes

The word is invariable: un caffè, tre caffè.^[10][14] Discorsi da caffè are idle, superficial talk.^[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 l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 201
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 660
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 499
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse