cafenea

Forms

cafenea f (plural cafenele)^[1] Old and regional forms include cafinea, cahfenea and cahvenea;^[2] Alecsandri wrote „Cafinelele sânt... pline de consomatori” “the coffee houses are full of customers”.^[2][3] In Banat and south-western Transylvania the word is cafană or căfană, from Serbian kafana.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قهوهخانه (kahvehane, “coffee house”), from Persian قهوهخانه (qahve-xâne).^[1][3][4][5] The Turkish word is a compound of قهوه (kahve, “coffee”) and خانه (hane, “house”), literally “house of coffee”.^[6][2] DEX and MDA2 also name Modern Greek καφενές (kafenés), itself from the Turkish word, as a source beside the Turkish.^[4][5][7] The word belongs to the family of cafea “coffee”, borrowed from the first element of the Turkish compound.^[8][3]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cafiné and Megleno-Romanian căvine, from the same Turkish source.^[8][9][10] The Transylvanian and Banat variant cafană was borrowed separately from Serbo-Croatian kafana.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1770.^[3][11] MDA2's first record is a text from before 1823.^[5] From the start it named a public room where coffee was drunk.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the coffee house was a place of meeting where people drank mainly Turkish coffee, read the newspapers and played billiards and cards; later it served other drinks and food as well.^[2][12] The word came to stand also for the staff and the customers of such a place.^[5] The phrase de cafenea “of the coffee house” means worthless or frivolous, as in vorbe de cafenea “idle talk”.^[4][13] Romanian built café-bar on the word in 1967.^[3]

Timeline

• 1770 – first record.^[3][11]
• before 1823 – MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1967 – café-bar, formed on cafenea and bar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coffee house or café: a public place where coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks and cakes are served.^[4][5]
2. By extension, the staff or the customers of a coffee house.^[5]
3. de cafenea: worthless, not serious.^[4][12]

Word family

• cafeneluță

Related words

• cafea
• cafegiu
• Aromanian cafiné

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. cafenea
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cafea
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 132
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 274
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 215
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 662
8. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cafea
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 237
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 67
11. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cafenea
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 312
13. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 106