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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

咖啡

kāfēi
coffee (Classifier: 杯)
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 2

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

The pronunciations in different Chinese varieties originate from a variety of languages:

:

Other pronunciations, such as Taiwanese Hokkien ka-pi, Taiwanese Hakka kâ-pî, Teochew gia¹ hui¹ and Eastern Min gă-pĭ, are likely literal pronunciations of the individual characters (cf. Japanese 珈琲), inferred using the youbian dubian (有邊讀邊) method.

The loanwords all ultimately trace back to Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • rootArabicق ه ي
  • borrowedFrenchcafé “coffee; coffee shop”
    • borrowedRussianко́фе “coffee”
      • borrowedMalaykopi “coffee”
        • derivedDutchkoffie
        • derivedJavaneseluwak
    • borrowedTagalogkape “coffee”
      • borrowedEnglishcoffee “A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.”
    • derived (ultimately)Italiancaffè “coffee”
    • derivedOttoman Turkishقهوه
      • borrowedArabicقَهْوَة “coffee”
      • derivedArabicقَهْوَة “coffee”
  • characterChinese咖 “only used in 咖啡 (kāfēi); also used as its short form”
    • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
    • soundChinese加 “to put on top of another object”
      • ideaChinese力 “physical strength; physical power; energy”
  • characterChinese啡 “Used in transcription.”
    • soundChinese非 “not be; is not; not”

Related: Japanese 珈琲

Meanings

noun
  1. coffee (Classifier: 杯)

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 植物名。茜草科咖啡樹屬，陰光性常綠灌木。原產於東非阿比西尼亞，現多栽培於熱帶地區。高約四至六公尺，花為白色。核果為橢圓形，成熟時呈黃紅色或紫紅色，果實內含有兩顆種子。種子為咖啡原料，焙乾後研成細末可沖泡為飲料，有興奮神經的效果。§英coffee 例：很多人常仰賴咖啡提神，然而不宜過量，以免傷身。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

Sources

  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 咖啡