English
Etymology
From Italian caffè, from Turkish kahve, from Arabic قهوة (qahwa, “coffee”). Some Ethiopians claim a derivation from Kaffa, an ancient province of Ethiopia where coffee is said to have originated, but this etymology is highly improbable as it fails to explain the initial shift to the Arabic ‘qahwa’. At the same time, qahwa refers only to coffee in liquid form. When it is dry, either as beans or ground, Arabs call coffee بن (bunn). That word comes from ቡና (buna), the Amharic word for coffee.
Many sources state that the Arabic term meant ‘a brew’, especially wine.
Noun
coffee (countable and uncountable; plural coffees)
1. A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
¶ The Turks have a drink called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter [...], which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can suffer [...]. [1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.5.1.v:]
¶ As I sip a coffee at Brasserie Balzar, two well-known intellectuals, one publisher and a Sorbonne professor were discussing Sarkozy's future: "He won't finish his mandate" says one. [2008, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian, 12 Apr 2008:]
¶ Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank. [Alphonse Allais]
2. The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, misnamed ‘beans’ due to their shape.
3. A tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
4. A pale brown colour.
5. The end of the meal—where coffee is usually served.
¶ He did not stay for coffee.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coffee
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