Where Does the Word Coffee Come From? Its Journey Through Many Languages

The English word coffee comes from Dutch koffie, which came from Ottoman Turkish kahve, which came from the Arabic qahwa. It reached English in the late 1500s, at around the same time Europeans were first describing the strange dark drink they had met in the Ottoman Empire and the Arab world.

The deeper question, where qahwa itself comes from, is more interesting and more disputed. Here is the word’s route across the map, the main theories about its origin, and a table of how people say coffee today.

Key takeaways

• The chain most dictionaries give is Arabic qahwa, then Ottoman Turkish kahve, then European forms such as Italian caffè and Dutch koffie, then English coffee.
• Coffee first appears in English writing in the late 16th century, with early spellings such as chaoua.
• Medieval Arabic dictionaries linked qahwa to wine and to a verb meaning to lack appetite; many scholars think it meant something like “the dark one.”
• A popular theory traces the word to the Kaffa region of Ethiopia, but it is debated, partly because coffee’s local name there is a different word: buno or bunn.

The journey of a word

Arabic: qahwa

Coffee drinking as we know it took shape among Sufi communities in Yemen and spread through the Arab world. The drink was called qahwa. According to Etymonline, the first coffeehouse in Mecca dates to the 1510s.

Ottoman Turkish: kahve

By the 1530s coffee had reached the Ottoman heartland, and the Turkish form kahve spread with Ottoman trade and culture. The Arabic “w” sound turned into a “v,” which explains the v in many later European forms.

Italian and the continental branch: caffè

Venice, with its strong trade links to the Ottoman world, was one of Europe’s early coffee gateways. Italian caffè gave rise, directly or indirectly, to French café and German Kaffee, which is why so many European words for coffee start with “caf” or “kaf.”

Dutch: koffie

The Dutch became major coffee traders in the 17th century. Etymonline traces English coffee most directly to Dutch koffie, with the double “f” and “o” sound that English kept.

English: coffee

Coffee shows up in English in the late 1500s, in travel accounts describing Ottoman and Arab customs. Early writers had no fixed spelling, and Etymonline lists forms such as chaoua (1598), cahve and kahui. Wikipedia’s coffee article dates the first English use a little earlier, to 1582. Either way, by the middle of the 1600s coffeehouses had opened in England and the spelling settled into coffee.

What did qahwa originally mean?

Here the story gets murky. Several explanations exist:

• Wine: Medieval Arabic dictionaries linked qahwa to a word for wine. Etymonline considers that connection doubtful, but the association is often repeated.
• Lacking appetite: The same dictionaries connected it to the verb qahiya, to have no appetite. A drink that dulls hunger fits coffee well.
• “The dark one”: Some scholars point to a Semitic root meaning dark color, suggesting qahwa simply described the dark drink or bean.

One detail matters for all of these: in Arabic, qahwa was the name of the drink, not the bean. The beans were called bunn.

The Kaffa theory and its problems

A very popular explanation says the word comes from Kaffa, a historic region and kingdom in southwestern Ethiopia, where wild coffee grows in the forests. It is an appealing story: coffee named after its homeland. Etymonline treats it as a possibility.

The theory has weaknesses, though:

• The local name is different. In Kaffa and across Ethiopia, coffee is called buno or buna, which is where Arabic bunn (the bean) comes from. If the plant was named after Kaffa, you might expect the region’s own word to reflect it.
• The Arabic word has its own history. Qahwa was an Arabic word with established meanings, and Arabic sources explain it without reference to Ethiopia.
• Sound and spelling. The q sound of qahwa and the k of Kaffa are different sounds in Arabic, which makes a simple borrowing less straightforward.

The honest summary: the Arabic origin of coffee is clear; whether Kaffa played any part in naming qahwa is uncertain. Ethiopia’s role as coffee’s homeland is not in doubt, only the link to the word. For the bigger picture of how coffee spread, see our history of coffee.

How to say coffee in 15 languages

Look at the list below and you can almost trace the trade routes. Most words come from the qahwa and kahve family; Ethiopia’s buna stands apart.

Patterns worth noticing

• The w and v split. Swahili kahawa and Polish kawa keep the w-type sound; Turkish kahve shows the shift to v.
• The f family. Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish and Greek all have an f sound, a sign of the European trade branch.
• Loanwords in Asia. Japanese kōhī was borrowed from Dutch koffie through Dutch trade with Japan, and Indonesian kopi reflects the Dutch-era coffee trade in Java.
• Ethiopia’s own word. Amharic buna shares its root with Arabic bunn, the bean, rather than with qahwa.

Taste the words

You can drink your way through this history. Our Ethiopia Natural comes from smallholder farmers in the Sidama zone, made from indigenous heirloom varieties and sun-dried in the cherry, with milk chocolate, ripe fruit and caramel notes: a cup of buna from coffee’s homeland. Our African Kahawa Blend takes its name from the Swahili word for coffee and offers a complex medium-dark roast of African coffees with toffee, red fruit and a soft floral finish. Explore more origins in our single origins.

FAQ: the word coffee

What language does the word coffee come from?

Ultimately from Arabic qahwa, which passed through Ottoman Turkish kahve and European languages such as Dutch koffie before reaching English.

When was the word coffee first used in English?

In the late 1500s. Sources differ slightly on the earliest example, with dates given between 1582 and 1598, and early spellings varied widely.

Is coffee named after Kaffa in Ethiopia?

Possibly, but it is debated. Coffee’s local name in Ethiopia is buna, and the Arabic word qahwa has its own history, so many scholars treat the Kaffa link as uncertain.

What does qahwa mean?

Medieval Arabic sources linked it to wine and to a verb meaning to lack appetite; some scholars think its core meaning was “the dark one.”

Why do some languages say kahve and others café?

Because coffee reached them by different routes. Turkish kahve kept the v sound, while Italian caffè and the languages that borrowed from it used an f.

Sources

1. “Coffee (n.),” Online Etymology Dictionary (Etymonline). etymonline.com
2. “List of Japanese words of Dutch origin,” Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
3. “Coffee,” Wikipedia, etymology section. en.wikipedia.org

Facts checked in October 2026.

Keep reading: The history of coffee · The best coffee beans in the world · Single origins collection