# Why is the word for coffee the same in every language? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243 "2001-03-08T18:01:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/21 "2001-03-09T06:29:42Z")
I’ve been told that the Chinese word(s) for telephone is te le fung, but I have no personal knowledge of Chinese to back that up. Kiwi is also the same in virtually every language. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/22 "2001-03-09T07:59:47Z")
In Manderin its Dian3 hua3 which translates to something like electric speech I think. Te le fung could very well be another way, but i wouldn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/23 "2001-03-09T11:11:56Z")
Some Dutch words: Coffee is _koffie_ [kô-fee] (I read somewhere that the Dutch settlers introduced the term to (American) English - although it could have been known to the _actual_ English as well, I suppose). Likewise, I was told that the American English word “Boss” is a phonetic derivative of the dutch word _baas_, meaning same. Likewise, “cookie” came from the Dutch equivalent _koekje_ [cook-yuh]. Does anyone know a good site to verify this sort of thing? Telephone is _telefoon_ [tay-lay-phone]. The words for mom and dad are _mama_ and _papa_. I can only think of one globaly universal word that is Dutch in origin, and in fact isn’t even altered in other languages. Unfortunately, that word is _Apartheid_. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/24 "2001-03-09T11:52:44Z")
Koreans took the word coffee, pronounced caw pee, but didn’t take telephone. Their word is pronounced Chun hwa ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/25 "2001-03-09T12:22:15Z")
A couple of Danish ones, FWIW: Coffee = Kaffe (Well-bred Danes spoke German or French among each other when coffee was introduced, so keeping the word was only natural.) Telephone = Telefon Oddly enough, telescope = “Kikkert”, lit. “peeker” or “peeking device”. (Well, the word “teleskop” is used as well, but what’s the fun in that ?) I know of but one Danish word exported to the world at large, at least in modern times: “Ombudsman(d)”. S. Norman ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/26 "2001-03-09T12:32:09Z")
We use _telescoop_, or the more mundane _sterrekijker_. “Star watcher”! Makes much more sense. Incidently, the Dutch always crack up at hearing South Africans speak. They use such descriptive words. E.G. where we say _lift_ for, well, “lift” or “elevator”, a South African will call it a _hijsbak_, literally meaning something like “hoisting tank”. Which is precisely what it is, but its sounds SO funny. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/27 "2001-03-09T12:40:22Z")
[national pride] Spiny claims: > [@](#): > > I know of but one Danish word exported to the world at large, at least in modern times: “Ombudsman(d)”. Sorry to disapoint you, [Websters](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ombudsman) claims it comes from Swedish. [/national pride] Coffee = kaffe Telephone = Telefon telescope = teleskop (or rather kikare) in Swedish as well. (Written Danish and Swedish may look similar, but the pronunciation is different! I would probably have serious problems understanding our friend Spiny, while I can read a Danish paper.) ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/28 "2001-03-09T13:04:53Z")
**tc** , I hate to admit it, but it looks like you’re right - I’ll never trust my 4th grade teacher again. Looks like I have some crow-eating to do, pass the condiments. [sullen voice] Damn, have **no** Danish words made it big ? [/sullen voice] ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/29 "2001-03-09T13:10:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tc \* > \*\*Sorry to disapoint you, [Websters](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ombudsman) claims it comes from Swedish. > \*\* And so does **smorgasbord**. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/30 "2001-03-09T13:25:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > [sullen voice] > Damn, have **no** Danish words made it big ? > [/sullen voice] _ **LEGO** _!! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/31 "2001-03-09T14:07:59Z")
**Ko Phe** sounds more Indonesian to me. Cà Phê is how I write it in Vietnamese, and that’s how I see my friends write it although I don’t deny that “ko phe” might be some bizarro jungle dialect. Telephone = Ðiên thoai Mango = Xoai No = Không ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/32 "2001-03-09T14:50:08Z")
In literary Urdu, according to the dictionary, they use the Arabic word for coffee: _qahvah_. But in everyday colloquial Urdu they just say _kâfî_ from English; in Hindi it’s _kâphî_. In Iran they use the Arabic word _qahvah_, but it’s pronounced “ghahveh”. The African language Hausa, like Urdu, uses either _gahawa_ from Arabic or _kofi_ from English. Swahili is another language that’s big on Arabic loanwords: they say _kahawa_. All the European forms of the word like _Kaffee_, _café_, etc. came from the Italian _caffè_, since the Venetians, who traded a lot with the Turks, were the first western Europeans to come in contact with the stuff. When coffee spread around the world to Asia, it was the English word that Asian languages borrowed. In Malaysia they say _kopi_. Malay doesn’t distinguish the sounds of p and f. Once in a Malaysian university a student asked me where was the coffee machine. I directed him to the cafeteria. But he wanted to copy some papers. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/33 "2001-03-09T15:01:00Z")
Finnish _kahvi_ must have come directly from Turkish. Lithuanian _kava_ looks Tahitian, but probably came from Arabic. Russian _kofe_ looks like a blend of the English and French forms. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/34 "2001-03-09T15:36:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > \*\*[sullen voice] > Damn, have **no** Danish words made it big ? > [/sullen voice] \*\* Danish _narhval_ (or possibly the same word in Norwegian) is the root of Dutch narwal Spanish narval English narwhal Italian narvalo French narval Swedish narval German Narwal Portuguese narval The Icelandic word for the creature, _náhvalur_, is related but probably not derived from Danish. Also, the oersted (a c.g.s. unit of magnetic intensity) is named after a Danish physicist, and the SI prefix femto- (10[sup]-15[/sup]) is either Danish or Norwegian. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/35 "2001-03-09T20:38:02Z")
Some time ago, I compiled a list of languages that English has borrowed words from. I tried to find a word that was unambiguously borrowed from each language rather than possibly from several related languages. Because Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are, linguistically speaking, the same language[sup]1[/sup] and share almost all their vocabulary, it was difficult to do this for them. There were lots of words that were from Scandinavian and some from either of two Scandinavian languages, but few from just one. Norweian was the easiest, allowing me to choose from _ski, slalom, vole,_ and _lemming_ (and some other less common words). Swedish had the aforementioned _smorgasboard_ and _ombudsman_. But Danish was especially difficult. The only one I could find was _skoal_ (obviously not an international word). [sup]1[/sup] This is a classic case of the linguistic truism[sup]2[/sup] “a language is a dialect with an army”. The difference between what is spoken in Stockholm and in Copenhagen is probably no greater than the difference between Boston and Atlanta. Yet Bostonians and Atlanteans both speak English. [sup]2[/sup] Note to Jomo Mojo: linguistic truisms and sayings, like those in other disciplines, are not to be taken as 100% factual. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/36 "2001-03-10T03:04:58Z")
> [@](#): > > talsími the fuck?!? anyway, in regards to cross-words, I believe wine is the one to beat. although it evolved from the earlier root **[oino]**, the intial dipthong got velarized (is that right?) so anyway, “wine” will give you a run for your money, ‘coffee’. at least if you stick to the romance/greco-roots. oh, proto-indo-european, too. jb ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/37 "2001-03-10T03:52:39Z")
Buried in this thread is **Akatsukami’s** fact that coffee was originally from Ethiopia. The Arabs got it from them. From my book on coffee _Pocket Guide to Coffees and Teas_ by Kenneth Anderson; the Arabs made two distinctive drinks from the coffee bean,one of which _bounya_ became known, generically as _kahwah or caoue_. The Turks stole it from the Arabs. Then the Europeans travelling to Arab lands in the mid/late-1500’s. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/38 "2001-03-10T17:20:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jb\_farley \* > \*\*anyway, in regards to cross-words, I believe wine is the one to beat. although it evolved from the earlier root **[oino]**, the intial dipthong got velarized (is that right?) > > so anyway, “wine” will give you a run for your money, ‘coffee’. at least if you stick to the romance/greco-roots. oh, proto-indo-european, too.\*\* Classical Greek had _oinos_ for ‘wine’, but in the earliest stage of Greek, the word began with a digamma (w): _woinos_. Corresponding to Latin _vinum_. The word for wine was a loanword from Semitic to Indo-European. Compare Arabic _wayn_, Hebrew _yayn_. (Arabic initial _w-_ always corresponds to Hebrew initial _y-_; for example the words for ‘boy’: _walad_ and _yeled_, respectively.) There were other Semitic loanwords to IE, for example the word for ‘seven’: _sab‘at-_ in Arabic, septm in Proto-Indo-European. Japanese _waino_, however, is a modern loanword from English _wino_. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/39 "2001-03-10T17:59:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*Buried in this thread is **Akatsukami’s** fact that coffee was originally from Ethiopia. The Arabs got it from them. > > From my book on coffee _Pocket Guide to Coffees and Teas_ by Kenneth Anderson; the Arabs made two distinctive drinks from the coffee bean,one of which _bounya_ became known, generically as _kahwah or caoue_. The Turks stole it from the Arabs. Then the Europeans travelling to Arab lands in the mid/late-1500’s. \*\* I think I mentioned already pretty plainly that the Arabs got the name for the coffee plant from Ethiopia. The coffee plant is native to Ethiopia. Coffee-drinking spread from Yemen, the first part of Arabia that caught on to it. In the fifteenth century. The local legends in Mukhá, Yemen (the origin of Mocha coffee) tell that it was a Sufi saint named ‘Alî ibn ‘Umar al-Shâdhilî who first taught the Yemenis about drinking coffee. Historically there is a very good basis for coffee’s transferral from Ethiopia to Yemen. For several thousand years there have been traffic and migrations back and forth between the two countries. The Ethiopic languages (Ge‘ez, Amharic, Tigre, Tigriña, Harari) are derived from ancient South Arabian spoken in the Himyarite kingdoms of Yemen. The royal line of Ethiopia traced its descent from the Queen of Sheba (Saba’ was another ancient kingdom of Yemen). In the 6th century Yemen was ruled by an Ethiopian dynasty. Coffee is not the only psychoactive plant found on both sides of the Red Sea: there is also _qât_. **samclem** , your source was slightly garbled. The Arabic word _bunyah_ means ‘structure’. The word you’re thinking of is _bunn_, which Arabic borrowed from Ethiopic. _Qahwah_ is made from the seeds (so-called beans) of the coffee fruit. The other kind of drink made from the coffee plant is called _qishr_, made from the pulp of the coffee fruit. The part other countries throw away after getting the beans out. In Yemen they dry the fruit pulp and brew a sort of tea with it. It doesn’t have caffeine. The “Turks stole it”? Actually, I think they bought it and paid for it. It was a commercial commodity, after all. It was Venetians trading with Turks who first brought coffee to western Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243/40 "2001-03-10T22:02:57Z")
**Jomo Mojo** writes: > [@](#): > > The word for wine was a loanword from Semitic to Indo-European. Compare Arabic wayn, Hebrew yayn. (Arabic initial w- always corresponds to Hebrew initial y-; for example the words for ‘boy’: walad and yeled, respectively.) There were other Semitic loanwords to IE, for example the word for ‘seven’: sab‘at- in Arabic, septm in Proto-Indo-European. I beg to differ. The Semitic and Indo-European words for wine are generally considered to be loanwords into both languages from an Old Mediterranean root \*\*woin-\*. The _sab‘at_/\*_septm_ correspondence is now generally though to be coincidence, although some have offered it in the past as evidence of an Indo-Semitic proto-language. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-for-coffee-the-same-in-every-language/57243.md?page=3)