You can tell I’m longing for my first cup, right? Yes, this week we’re looking into the wonders of coffee. I mean, of the word. 😉
Word of the Week – coffee
The best guess of the awesome www.etymonline.com is that our word coffee came from the Italian caffe, which came the Turkish kahveh, which in turn came from the Arabic qahwah. Which, they think, got its name from the Kaffa region in Ethiopia, where most historians say coffee originated.
God bless those Arabians in Ethiopia!
Coffee was introduced in England by 1650, and within 25 years, over 3,000 coffeehouses dotted the country. (I heard a theory saying that the English moving from ale to coffee is why there was a great expansion in their empire, LOL.)
What I didn’t realize is that by 1774 one could use the word coffee to refer to a small meal where the drink was served, much like tea. Who knew?
And on that note, I’m off to have some. The smell has been wafting in here for the last five minutes . . .
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.