Coffee

The year was 1582, and something wonderful was brewing in the English lexicon. The Dutch called it koffie. But the English language required its own iteration of the word and decided to call it coffee. Thus, English-speaking individuals officially had a name that has been stimulating their morning rituals for nearly 600 years.

The Dutch, of course, had done the same thing with the Italian word: caffѐ, adapting it to their particular way of speaking, as had the Italians, having borrowed kahve from the Turkish Ottomans and gave it their own spin. But the Turks were not the originators of the brew's moniker. They appear to have taken it from the Arabic qahwah, originally used for wine or intoxicating beverages, later applied to the dark, stimulating brew.

It took 16 years, and a few spelling variations before the English settled on coffee in about 1598. Chaoua, cahve, kahui and coho were tried, tested and all found wanting. Then someone proposed the six-letter configuration we are still using nearly 600 years later.

The plant from which coffee beans come originated in Ethiopia and was called bunn (or būn)*—a far cry from the Arabic word, back to which coffee has been traced. It seems that the Arabs preferred to credit the stimulating properties of caffeine rather than honour the Ethiopian nomenclature.

There is a legend about the discovery of coffee in the Kaffa region of Ethiopia that originates in the mid-9th century (circa 850 AD). The story tells of an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi, who noticed that his charges became energetic after eating berries from a certain shrub. The veracity of this tale is unknown as it was not written down until centuries later, but it is a plausible origin story for our beloved morning wake-up call. It wasn't until sometime during the 15th century, though, that coffee was brewed as a beverage (likely in Yemen). Before that, the beans were consumed as a stimulant, often added to food.

Whether or not we have the humble bovidae family members to thank for introducing us to coffee so long ago, we remain grateful for its discovery and its fantastic linguistic journey from the heart of Africa to our favourite mugs.

*The brand name Bunn (Bunn-O-Matic Corporation) is derived from the family name of its founder, George R. Bunn, who established the beverage equipment company in the late 1950s. While coincidental, the name is not derived from the Ethiopian word bunn or būn, which refers to coffee beans.