What is the word "coffee" in different languages?

The origin of the drink, due to the genus of the name of which many copies are broken in Russian linguistic forums, is currently unknown. It is believed that in the first millennium AD the shepherd in Ethiopia used the fruits of the coffee plant to prepare an invigorating broth, based on observations of the excited behavior of goats that consumed coffee beans. About what kind of word "coffee" was in the Ethiopian language of that time, and whether there was any name at all - is unknown. But it is assumed that it originated from the name of the Kaffa region, where the above-mentioned plants grew. It was from here, perhaps, they were brought to Arabia, where the drink was called "kahve", which in translation means "driving away dreams". From the Middle East, the decoction began its sensational procession to Europe. In the XV-XVI centuries it was tried in Italy and France. Here it became known as "caffe" and "cafe" respectively. It is interesting that on the Italian land the first tasting took place in the palace of the Roman Pope himself. There were periods of persecution, when the drink was forbidden as a "devil's potion".

If you want to find out what kind of word "coffee" in European languages, then we report - almost everywhere the masculine gender. On the Russian soil, however, there is a debate about whether this term belongs to the middle or masculine gender.

And some foreign linguists of this problem may not understand at all, because only their masculine and feminine gender is present in their language (French, Spanish, Italian, Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi), middle and general gender (Scandinavian languages group) or genus in general There is no (English, Finnish, Turkic, Korean, Chinese, Mongolian, Armenian, etc.). We also have the question of what kind of word "coffee" is supposed to have arisen due to the fact that it (in accordance with world tendencies) is referred to the masculine gender, despite the ending "e", more appropriate to the average, and also to use the recommendations without Declension.

Coffee as a product became widespread in Russia only in the time of Peter the Great, when the whole world was already familiar with this drink. Therefore, he was called "kef", and "coffee", and "kofa", and "kohei", transferring Western or eastern terms in Russian. In many works of the classics of past centuries, one can find phrases that "someone has had a bite of coffee." This is the second possible reason to call the genus of "coffee" in modern language as a male, following the great creators of the literary arena.

Some publications define for the use of words a strictly colloquial and strictly literary norm. According to the dictionaries and linguistic materials of the 70-80s. XX century, the answer to the question of what kind of word "coffee" is that in colloquial speech, the use of this concept in the middle genus is permissible, but according to strict rules it always applies and refers to the masculine gender.

The same opinion is shared by the specialists of St. Petersburg University, who in a new dictionary delicately avoided this problem, but confirmed that at the moment it is precisely established what kind of "coffee". Male. But in the future it is not excluded that it will move to the middle class on a par with "cocoa".