Category Archives: Words, phrases & expressions

Know your coffees

As Frank Sinatra sang, “They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”. Well, we’ve got an awful lot of coffee brews in the world — hot and cold, black and brown, frothy and smooth, strong and weak, bitter and sweet — and they are named variously and sometimes exotically: after the ingredients they contain, the countries they originate in, the way they’re made, or simply the way they look.

Here, courtesy of Wikipedia (with some Glossophilia edits), is a fairly comprehensive dictionary of coffees; please add any more in the comments section below.

Affogato

An affogato

An affogato (Italian for “drowned”) is a coffee-based beverage or dessert. “Affogato style”, which refers to the act of topping a drink or dessert with espresso, may also incorporate caramel sauce or chocolate sauce.

Antoccino

An Antoccino is a single shot of espresso with steamed milk in a 1:1 ratio, served in an espresso cup.

Black Eye

A Black Eye is dripped coffee with a double shot of espresso. It has a strong taste.

Breve

Beverage made with steamed half-and-half cream.

Caffè Americano

A Caffè Americano

Caffè Americano or simply Americano (the name is also spelled with varying capitalization and use of diacritics: e.g. Café Americano, Cafe Americano, etc.) is a style of coffee prepared by adding hot water to espresso, giving a similar strength to but different flavor from regular drip coffee. The drink consists of a single or double-shot of espresso combined with between 1 and 16 fluid ounces (30 – 470ml) of hot water. The strength of an Americano varies with the number of shots of espresso added. In the United States, “Americano” is used broadly to mean combining hot water and espresso in either order, but in a narrower definition it refers to adding water to espresso (espresso on the bottom), while adding espresso to water (espresso on the top) is instead referred to as a “long black”.

Variations include: long black, lungo, red eye, and Tors Hammer (from Norway)

Café au lait

Café au lait as being served in Oslo, Norway; espresso and steamed milk, served in a bowl

A café au lait is traditionally the French way of preparing ‘coffee with milk’ both at home and in cafés in Europe. “Café au lait” stems from the same continental tradition as “caffè latte” in Italy, “café con leche” in Spain, “kawa biała” (“white coffee”) in Poland, “Milchkaffee” in Germany, “Mèlange” in Austria, “koffie verkeerd” in Netherlands, and “café com leite” in Portugal, meaning simply “coffee with milk”.

In northern Europe, café au lait is the name most often used in coffee shops for what other places call a ‘caffè latte’.

The term ‘café au lait’ has been used for espresso + milk since the 1950s in (among other places) the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In the U.S., ‘café au lait’ is defined as a coffee beverage consisting of strong or bold coffee (sometimes espresso) mixed with scalded milk in approximately a 1:1 ratio.

Café Bombón

Café bombón

Cafe Bombon was made popular in Valencia, Spain, and spread gradually to the rest of the country. It might have been re-created and modified to suit European tastebuds as in many parts of Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore the same recipe for coffee which is called “Kopi Susu Panas” (Malaysia) or “Gafeh Rorn” [lit: hot coffee] (Thailand) has already been around for decades and is very popular in “mamak” stalls and “kopitiams” in Malaysia. A café bombón, however uses espresso served with sweetened condensed milk in a 1:1 ratio whereas the Asian version uses ground coffee and sweetened condensed milk at the same ratio. For café bombón, the condensed milk is added to the espresso. For visual effect, a glass is used, and the condensed milk is added slowly to sink underneath the coffee and create two separate bands of contrasting colour – though these layers are customarily stirred together before consumption. Some establishments merely serve an espresso with a sachet of condensed milk for patrons to make themselves.

Café Cubano

Café Cubano (Cuban coffee, Cuban espresso, cafecito, Cuban pull, Cuban shot) is a type of espresso that originated in Cuba after espresso machines were first imported there from Italy. Specifically, it refers to an espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar as it is being brewed, but the name covers other drinks that use Cuban espresso as their base. Drinking café cubano remains a prominent social and cultural activity within Cuba, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa and the Keys, as well as the Cuban exile community. Café Cubano is available in almost all coffee shops in Miami, making it a staple of local cuisine and tradition.

Caffè crema

Caffè crema (Italian: cream coffee) refers to two different coffee drinks: 1) An old name for espresso (1940s and 50s), and 2) a long espresso drink primarily served in Switzerland and Austria and northern Italy (1980s onwards), along the Italian/ Swiss and Italian/ Austrian border.

As a colorful term it generally means “espresso”, while in technical discussions, referring to the long drink, it may more narrowly be referred to as Swiss caffè crema.

Variant terms include “crema caffè” and the hyperforeignism “café crema” – “café” is French, while “caffè” and “crema” are Italian, thus “café crema” mixes French and Italian.

Café de olla

Café de olla or pot coffee is a traditional coffee-based drink prepared using earthen clay pots or jars in Mexico and other Latin American countries. It is flavored with cinammon and piloncillo. Consumed primarily in colder weathers, usually with the merienda meal, and accompanied with pan dulce pastries.

Caffè latte

A Caffè latte

Similar to the Portuguese Galão, a latte is a portion of espresso and steamed milk, generally in a 1:3 to 1:5 ratio of espresso to milk, with a little foam on top.

Caffè Marocchino

The Marocchino is made from espresso, steamed milk, and a dusting of cocoa powder, similar to the espressino.

Caffè Medici

A Caffè Medici is a doppio poured over chocolate syrup and orange peel, usually topped with whipped cream. The drink originated at Seattle’s historic Last Exit on Brooklyn coffeehouse.

Café miel

A café miel has a shot of espresso, steamed milk, cinnamon, and honey. The name comes from the French word for honey, miel.

Cafe mocha

A mocha latte in Costa Rica

A café mocha is a variant of a caffè latte. Like a latte, it is typically one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk, but a portion of chocolate is added, typically in the form of a chocolate syrup, although other vending systems use instant chocolate powder. Mochas can contain dark or milk chocolate.

The term moccaccino is used in some regions of Europe and the Middle East to describe caffè latte with cocoa or chocolate. In the U.S. it usually refers to a cappuccino made with chocolate.

A “cafe borgia” is a mocha with orange rind and sometimes orange flavoring added. Often served with whipped cream and topped with cinnamon.

Caffè Tobio

Caffè Tobio is an espresso drink with an equal amount of regular coffee. This combination simultaneously helps the flavor of weak coffee and hides the bitter flavor of espresso. Useful in chain coffee bars.

Café Touba

Café Touba is the spiritual beverage of Senegal, named for the holy city of Touba. During the roasting process, the coffee beans are mixed with grains of selim, and sometimes other spices, and ground into powder after roasting. The drink is prepared using a filter, similar to plain coffee. Sugar is often added before drinking.

Cafe Zorro

A Cafe Zorro is a double espresso, or doppio, added to hot water with a 1:1 ratio.

Ca phe sua da

A Cà phê sữa đá

Cà phê sữa đá, also known as, cafe sua da (Vietnamese: Cà phê sữa đá) or “V-caf”, is a unique Vietnamese coffee recipe. Literally, ca phe sua da means “iced milk coffee”. Ca phe sua da can be made simply by mixing black coffee with about a quarter to a half as much sweetened condensed milk and then pouring it over ice. A substitute made by many Vietnamese immigrants in the Southern U.S., particularly in Louisiana is a dark French roast, often with chicory; otherwise an imported Vietnamese-grown and roasted coffee is used when it is available. The coffee is traditionally brewed with a small metal Vietnamese drip filter into a cup containing the condensed milk. The condensed milk and coffee are stirred together and then poured over the ice. Ca phe sua nong (Vietnamese: ‘cà phê sữa nóng’) — literally, “hot milk coffee” — is made by excluding the ice.

In Spain, there is a similar beverage called Café del Tiempo ([Summer] Weather Coffee) or Café con Hielo (Coffee with Ice). Similarly, Café Bombón can be served with ice. The coffee is served in a small cup and an empty small glass with ices cubes. Sugar or condensed milk is added in the small cup while the coffee is still hot, and then the coffee is poured in the small glass with ices. When the coffee is cooled, the remaining ice is removed with the help of a spoon.

Cappuccino

Cappuccino

Cappuccino is a coffee-based drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed milk foam. A cappuccino differs from a caffè latte in that it is prepared with much less steamed or textured milk than the caffè latte with the total of espresso and milk/foam making up between approximately 150 and 180 millilitres (5 and 6 US fluid ounces). A cappuccino usually exceeds the height of the cup, making the foam visible above the side of the cup. A cappuccino is traditionally served in a porcelain cup, which has far better heat retention characteristics than glass or paper. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer.

Chai Latte

Numerous houses use the term chai latte to indicate that the steamed milk of a normal cafè latte is being flavoured with a spiced tea concentrate instead of with espresso. Add espresso shots for a “Dirty Chai Latte”.

Chocolate Dalmation

A Chocolate Dalmatian is a white chocolate mocha topped with java chip and chocolate chip.

Coffee milk

A coffee milk is a drink similar to chocolate milk; however, instead of chocolate syrup, coffee syrup is used. It is the official state drink of Rhode Island in the United States.

Cortado

A café cortado, served in Barcelona

A cortado is an espresso (also known as “Pingo” or “Garoto”) “cut” (from the Spanish and Portuguese cortar) with a small amount of warm milk to reduce the acidity. The ratio of milk to coffee is between 1:1 – 1:2, and the milk is added after the espresso. The steamed milk hasn’t much foam, but many baristas make some micro foam to make latte art. It is popular in Spain and Portugal, in Norway as well as throughout Latin America, where it is drunk in the afternoon. In Cuba, it is known as a cortadito. It’s usually served in a special glass, often with a metal ring base and a metal wire handle. There are several variations, including cortado condensada (espresso with condensed milk) and leche y leche (with condensed milk and cream on top). In the United States it is sometimes known as a “Gibraltar”. Differs from Cappuccino with little or no milk foam, and from Flat White in that the Flat White is always prepared with a double espresso and no foam.

Decaf

A coffee beverage made with decaffeinated beans.

Dirty Chai

Chai tea with a single shot of espresso. In addition, 1-2 tablespoons of instant Espresso may be brewed while simultaneously steeping Chai in the same container; a small amount of a dairy or non-dairy beverage of choice is usually added to complete the drink.

Doppio

Extracting a doppio

Doppio in espresso is a double shot, extracted using a double filter basket in the portafilter.

Eiskaffee

Eiskaffee, literally “ice cream coffee”, is a popular German drink consisting of chilled coffee, milk, sweetener, vanilla ice cream, and sometimes whipped cream.

Espressino

An espressino is made from espresso, steamed milk, and cocoa powder, similar to the Marocchino

Espresso

Espresso

Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water — about 86 to 95 °C (187 to 203 °F) — under pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Espresso often has a thicker consistency than coffee brewed by other methods, a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids, and crema (meaning cream, but being a reference to the foam with a creamy texture that forms as a result of the pressure). As a result of the pressurized brewing process the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. Espresso is the base for other drinks, such as a latte, cappuccino, macchiato, mocha, or americano. Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume than most beverages, but the usual serving size is smaller—a typical 60 mL (2 US fluid ounce) of espresso has 80 to 150 mg of caffeine, little less than the 95 to 200 mg of a standard 240 mL (8 US fluid ounces) cup of drip-brewed coffee.

Espresso Romano

An Espresso Romano is a shot of espresso with a small rind of lemon and sugar added to it.

Flat white

A flat white with latte art

A flat white is an espresso coffee with a similar proportion of coffee to milk as a caffè latte and a cappuccino, the main difference being the texture of the milk and (in some regions) the number of espresso shots.

The drink originated in Australia and New Zealand in the late 1970s as alternative to the frothier cappuccino. It has since spread to the UK, where it first began to be served by independent cafes in London like Department of Coffee and Social affairs and Speak Easy, Where Owners and staff are from New Zealand bring the style of coffee into the UK before being adopted by chains Costa and Starbucks. It is rarely found in continental Europe or the United States.

In New Zealand it is traditionally made with two shots of espresso topped with stretched and texturised milk. The milk is prepared by steaming air into the milk and folding the top layer into the lower layers. To achieve the “flat”, non-frothy texture the steamed milk is poured from the bottom of the jug, holding back the lighter froth on the top in order to access milk with smaller bubbles, making the drink smooth and velvety in texture. This leads to a white coffee with the crema on top still intact. The drink was traditionally served in a ceramic cup used for cappuccinos (approximately 220-260ml in capacity), though present-day speciality cafes are more likely to serve it in smaller (150-160ml) cups with two Ristretto shots used, resulting in a drink noticeably stronger and less milky than a caffè latte.

Outside New Zealand, the milk is prepared in a manner more similar to that of a caffè latte; the milk is stretched and texturised but is poured freely rather than the froth being held back with a spoon or knife. This results in a thicker density of milk with more froth.

In Australia the drink more closely resembles a caffè latte as it tends to be served with a single shot of coffee, resulting in a weaker and milkier drink.

In the United Kingdom the drink has a similar strength to the New Zealand version. It is made in a small cup (150-160ml), contains two espresso (often ristretto) shots, and is often finished with latte art. The skill needed in preparing ristretto shots and latte art means that it is viewed as something of a speciality product in the UK.

Galão

Galão is a hot drink from Portugal made of espresso and foamed milk. In all similar to caffè latte or café au lait, it comes in a tall glass with about one quarter coffee, 3 quarters foamed milk. When the proportion is 1:1 it is called “meia de leite” (Chinesa in Madeira) and it comes in a coffee cup.

Guillermo

Originally, one or two shots of hot espresso, poured over slices of lime it can also be served on ice, sometimes with a touch of milk.

Greek frappé coffee

A Café frappé

Greek frappé (Café frappé) (Greek: φραπές) is a foam-covered iced coffee drink made from spray-dried instant coffee. It is very popular in Greece especially during summer, but has now spread on to other countries. In French, when describing a drink, the word frappé means shaken and/or chilled; however, in popular Greek culture, the word frappé is predominantly taken to refer to the shaking associated with the preparation of a café frappé.

Green Eye

A Green Eye (also known as “Triple Death”) is dripped coffee with a triple shot of espresso.

Half-caf

Beverage made with half and half parts caffeinated beans and decaffeinated beans.

Iced coffee

Iced coffee is a cold variant of the normally hot beverage coffee.

Indian filter coffee

South Indian Coffee, also known as Madras Filter Coffee or Kaapi (Tamil phonetic rendering of “coffee’) is a sweet milky coffee made from dark roasted coffee beans (70%–80%) and chicory (20%–30%), especially popular in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The most commonly used coffee beans are Peaberry (preferred), Arabica, Malabar and Robusta grown in the hills of Kerala (Malabar region), Karnataka (Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru) and Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris District,Yercaud and Kodaikanal).

Instant coffee

Instant coffee

Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Through various manufacturing processes the coffee is dehydrated into the form of powder or granules. These can be rehydrated with hot water to provide a drink similar (though not identical) to conventional coffee. At least one brand of instant coffee is also available in concentrated liquid form.

Irish Coffee

Irish coffee is coffee combined with whiskey and cream, often further sweetened with sugar. Also available as a flavor of ice cream.

Kopi susu

Kopi susu is found in (at least) Malaysia, Borneo and Indonesia and very similar to the preceding entry for Ca phe sua nong. Literally, kopi susu means “milk coffee”. Served in a glass, kopi susu can be made simply by mixing black coffee (arabica) with about a quarter to half a glass of sweetened condensed milk then let stand to cool and allow the grounds to sink to the bottom. You should not drink this to the end unless you want to “eat” the ground coffee. Kopi Turbruk is as above but uses sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk.

Latte macchiato

Latte macchiato literally means stained milk. This refers to the method of preparation, wherein the milk gets “stained” by the addition of espresso. It differs significantly from caffè latte firstly in that espresso is added to milk (rather than milk to espresso), secondly that it features more foam, rather than simply hot milk, thirdly in that often only ½ (or less) of an espresso shot is used, and fourthly in that it is often a “layered” drink, rather than being mixed as in a caffè latte. Simply, in a caffè latte, the emphasis is on the coffee, while in a latte macchiato, the emphasis is on the milk.

Macchiato

A Caffè macchiato

Caffè macchiato – Macchiato, meaning ‘stained’, is an Espresso with a dash of foamed milk. At first sight it resembles a small Cappuccino but even if the ingredients are the same as those used for Cappuccino a Macchiato has a much stronger and aromatic taste.The milk is foamed directly into the espresso cup, which is then put under the coffee outlet. The espresso is then drawn into the cup. Cocoa is then sprinkled over the drink (optional). Often the process is reversed and milk foam is floated on top of extracted coffee. A long Macchiato will have two shots of espresso and a small amount of hot water (as per long black). A short Macchiato will usually have one shot of coffee and less water (as per short black).

Mélange

Mélange is popular in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and is traditionally similar to caffè latte and cappuccino (and more a mix of the two), a large cup with (today) espresso and steamed milk with some milk foam. Mélange and its ‘cousin’ cappuccino both have variations with whipped cream atop the blend of milk and coffee. Outside Vienna this is sometimes referred to as ‘Wienermelange’, although that name does not exist there. The origin of Mèlange goes back to the 1700s as a Café drink (you wouldn’t call it that at home) in Austria.

Mocha (see Cafe mocha above)

Mazagran

Mazagran (sometimes misspelled as Mazagrin) is a long cold coffee beverage usual in Portugal and served in a tall glass. It is made with at least strong coffee – usually espresso – lemon and ice, though sometimes sugar, rum or water is added. Sometimes a fast version is achieved by pouring a previously sweetened espresso in a cup with ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

Palazzo

A Palazzo is an iced coffee variant, popular in Southern California. It is two shots of espresso, chilled immediately after brewing and mixed with sweetened cream. A Palazzo is typically made using a moka pot.

Pharisäer

A Pharisäer, meaning a Pharisee, is an alcoholic coffee beverage that is popular in the Nordfriesland district of Germany. It consists of a mug of black coffee, a double shot of rum, and a topping of whipped cream. In 1981, a court in Flensburg ruled that 2 centilitres (0.70 imp fl oz; 0.68 US fl oz) of rum were not sufficient for preparing a genuine Pharisäer.

Pocillo

A shot or small portion of unsweetened coffee, now usually made either using an espresso machine or a moka pot, but traditionally made using a cloth drip, usually served in cups made for the purpose (called “tazitas de pocillo“). It is widely-drunk in Latin America, usually as an afternoon or after-dinner coffee. The defining feature is the size, usually half size to a quarter size of the usual ~8 US fluid ounces (240 ml) coffee cups. There are a number of small-sized drinks that use tazitas de pocillo, including sweetened (such as café cubano and café cortado), but these are usually not called a pocillo; rather, the Spanish diminutive suffix “-ito” is usually added to the name of the drink wanted in a pocillo size cup. For example, a pocillo-sized cortado is usually called a cortadito.

Red Eye

A Red Eye is dripped coffee with a single shot of espresso. This drink is also known as a Shot in the Dark.

Red Tie

A traditional Thai Iced Tea, which is a spicy and sweet mixture of chilled black tea, orange blossom water, star anise, crushed tamarind, sugar and condensed milk or cream, with a single shot of espresso.

Red Tux

A Zebra Mocha combined with raspberry flavoring.

Regular coffee

In New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, a regular coffee is one with milk (or cream) and sugar. A variant phrasing is coffee regular.

Ristretto

Ristretto is a very “short” shot of espresso coffee. Originally this meant pulling a hand press faster than usual using the same amount of water as a regular shot of espresso. Since the water came in contact with the grinds for a much shorter time the caffeine is extracted in reduced ratio to the flavorful coffee oils. The resultant shot could be described as bolder, fuller, with more body and less bitterness. All of these flavors are usually attributed to espresso in general, but are more pronounced in ristretto. Today, with the hand press out of favor and modern automated machines generally less controllable, ristretto usually just means less water; a double espresso shot is typically around 60 ml (2 fl oz), while a double ristretto is typically 45 ml (1–1.5 fl oz).

Rüdesheimer kaffee

Rüdesheimer kaffee is an alcoholic coffee drink from Rüdesheim in Germany invented in 1957 by Hans Karl Adam. It is made with Asbach Uralt brandy with coffee and sugar, and is topped with whipped cream.

Skinny Latte

A reduced calorie latte made with steamed non-fat milk.

Turkish coffee

Beans for Turkish coffee are ground or pounded to the finest possible powder, finer than for any other way of preparation. Preparation of Turkish coffee consists of immersing the coffee grounds in water which is most of the time hot but not boiling for long enough to dissolve the flavoursome compounds. While prolonged boiling of coffee gives it an unpleasant “cooked” or “burnt” taste, very brief boiling does not, and bringing it to the boil shows without guesswork that it has reached the appropriate temperature.

In Turkey, four degrees of sweetness are used. The Turkish terms and approximate amounts are as follows: sade (plain; no sugar), az şekerli (little sugar; half a level teaspoon of sugar), orta şekerli (medium sugar; one level teaspoon), and çok şekerli (a lot of sugar; one and a half or two level teaspoons). The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on moderate heat; if too high, the coffee comes to the boil too quickly, without time to extract the flavour. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee comes to the boil the pot is removed from the heat. It is usually kept off the heat for a short time, then brought to the boil a second and a third time, then the coffee is poured into the cups. Getting the thickest possible layer of foam is considered the peak of the coffee maker’s art. One way to maximise this is to pour slowly and try to lift the pot higher and higher as the pouring continues. Regardless of these techniques, getting the same amount of foam into all cups is hard to achieve, and the cup with the most foam is considered the best of the lot.

Vienna coffee

A “Vienna coffee” is the name of a popular traditional cream based coffee beverage. It is made by preparing two shots of espresso in a standard sized coffee cup and infusing the coffee with whipped cream (as a replacement for milk and sugar) until the cup is full. Then the cream is twirled and optionally topped off with chocolate sprinklings. The coffee is drunk through the cream top.

White Coffee

Ipoh “White” Coffee is a popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine, and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. The taste is smooth and sweet, and is often served iced.

“White coffee” is also a common nickname in the UK for coffee with milk.

Wiener Melange

A Wiener Melange

A Wiener Melange is a specialty coffee drink similar to a cappuccino. The difference is sometimes assumed to be that the Melange is made with milder coffee but the Viennese coffee company Julius Meinl describes a Wiener Melange as “one small espresso served in a large cup of coffee. Steam milk and add milk foam to coffee (=small milk coffee)”. Cafe Sabarsky in Manhattan concurs. At Cafe Sperl in Vienna, the Melange is 1/2 cup “black coffee” and 1/2 cup creamy milk, completed by milk foam.

Yuanyang

Yuanyang, sometimes also called Ying Yong, is a popular beverage in Hong Kong, made of a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea. It was originally served at dai pai dangs (open space food vendors) and cha chaan tengs (cafe), but is now available in various types of restaurants. It can be served hot or cold. The name yuanyang, which refers to mandarin ducks, is a symbol of conjugal love in Chinese culture, as the birds usually appear in pairs and the male and female look very different. This same connotation of “pair” of two unlike items is used to name this drink.

Zebra Mocha

A Zebra Mocha, sometimes known as a “Black Tux” or a “Black and White”, is a mixture of regular mocha with a white chocolate mocha

* Liqueur coffee, as its name suggests, is a coffee brew with a 25 ml shot of liqueur. This brew is usually served in a clear, clean, pre-heated, liqueur coffee glass with the coffee and cream separated for good visual and taste effect. The liqueur of choice is added first with a teaspoon of raw cane sugar mixed in. The glass is then filled to within an inch of the top with good, strong, fresh filter coffee. Fresh, chilled, additive free, slightly whipped cream is then poured carefully over the back of a cold teaspoon, so that it floats on top of the coffee and liqueur mixture. The sugar is required in the coffee mixture to help the cream float.

Names of specific liqueur coffees:

Gaelic coffee (Drambuie or Glayva)
Irish Coffee (Whiskey)
Brandy Coffee (Brandy)
Keoke Coffee (Brandy and Kahlúa)
English Coffee (Gin)
Calypso Coffee (Tia Maria or Kahlúa and Rum)
Jamaican Coffee (Tia Maria & Rum)
Shin Shin Coffee (Rum)
Baileys Irish Cream Coffee
Monk’s Coffee (Bénédictine)
Seville Coffee (Cointreau)
Witch’s Coffee (Strega)
Russian Coffee (Vodka)
Priest Coffee (Brennivín)
Corfu Coffee (Koum Quat liquor)
Kaffee Fertig (coffee with Swiss prune schnapps)
Caffè corretto (that is an Italian beverage, consists of a shot of espresso “corrected” with a shot of liquor, usually grappa, brandy or sambuca.)
Coffee liqueurs (ex. Kahlúa, Kamora)

Two drink each other’s, more drain one another’s

“Each other” and “one another” are both reciprocal pronouns. This means that whatever is happening between “each other” or “one another” is going in two (or more) directions; if John and Jane love each other, he loves her and she loves him. When students share their revision notes with one another, no-one is at a disadvantage come exam time. But is there a difference between the two expressions? Or are they the same as each other?

Some traditionalists – and even several usage guides – advise that each other should be used to denote a reciprocal relationship only between two entities, whereas one another refers to three or more people or things. When Cher sang “Love One Another” about 10 years ago, she was presumably advising many people to love reciprocally; had she been addressing just one couple, “Love Each Other” (according to these strict grammarians) might have been more appropriate. A brother and sister compete with each other; three contestants vie with one another for the main prize …

However, in practice these expressions are used more or less interchangeably, whatever the number involved. In South Carolina yesterday, it was reported that “Spartanburg beekeepers encourage each other.” I’m guessing there are more than two beekeepers in Spartanburg. In a discussion about the Trayvon Martin case, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talked about how Americans are “treating each other with such disdain it’s not even funny.” There are definitely more than two Americans out there in the world, so Roberts obviously doesn’t abide by this particular rule.

Merriam-Webster traces “the prescriptive rule” (of each other for two, one another for three or more) back to the writings of a grammarian, George N. Ussher, in 1785, but goes on to explain that Ussher had no foundation for distinguishing between the terms whose interchangeability had been established many centuries earlier. “There is no sin in its violation,” reassures MW about the restriction, which has never existed in practice. Most modern dictionaries define the terms as interchangeable.

Fowler is relaxed about the interchangeability of the reciprocal pronouns. In the second edition of his Modern English Usage, he explains: “Some writers use each other only when no more than two things are referred to, one another being similarly appropriated to larger numbers; but this differentiation is neither of present utility nor based on historical usage. The old distributive of two as opposed to several was not each but either; and either other, which formerly existed beside each other and one another, would doubtless have survived if its special meaning had been required.

There is one situation, arguably, in which one another might be the preferred choice of expression, and that’s when talking about an ordered series (often temporal) of events or stages. “The relay runners passed their batons seamlessly to one another,” suggesting a handover one after the other. New York’s Daily News described today how customers were “pick[ing] up one another’s bills in [a] chain reaction at Massachusetts’ Heav’nly Donuts”. Here there’s a clear indication of more than two people in relationships that move forward in time. “The soldiers followed one another onto the parade ground” would sound slightly awkward if each other were substituted (unless there were only two of them).

One small word about possessive usage: The Sun reported today that “lovebirds Lia Benninghoff and Aro Draven share an unusual bond — they drink each other’s blood.” Each other and one another act as singles (ie. the apostrophe goes between other or another and the ‘s’) when they have possessions — whether they’re vampires or anyone else. They each own it, despite sharing it, and it belongs to only one of them at a time.

Every time we say goodbye …

Which song contains these lyrics? “So long, fare thee well, Pip! Pip! Cheerio!”

There are many ways to say goodbye, however sweet or sorrowful, profound or fleeting the parting might be. Here’s where some of them come from.

Goodbye: from 1590s: a contraction of “God be with you”

So long: dates to about 1860, of unknown origin. Probably from the German phrase “adieu so lange”, meaning “farewell whilst (we’re apart)”. Another theory is that it’s a corruption of “salaam” picked up by British sailors serving in Indonesia. I think it’s said more in America than in Great Britain (although you might hear it more in Ireland or Scotland?)

Farewell (poetic/dated): late 14th century, from Middle English “faren wel”, meaning literally “fare well”

Fare thee well (archaic)

Godspeed (archaic): from Middle English phrase “God spede”, with spede being the subjunctive of speden, “to prosper”: hence “may God cause you to succeed”. Usually a farewell to someone embarking on a (possibly perilous) journey.

Bye / bye-bye (informal): shortened version of goodbye

See you later (alligator) (lighthearted informal): the “alligator” addition is from an iconic rock ‘n’ roll song from the 1950s

See you: (informal): a shortening of “see you later”

Later, and more recently lates (slang): shortening of “see you later”

Peace (modern slang): shortenening of peace out; used mainly for signing off phone calls or e-mails

Cheerio (British upbeat informal): from 1910, from the word cheer

Cheers: (British informal, meaning “thank you”, “good luck”, or “goodbye”; the meaning of a drinking toast goes back to 1919, also from the word cheer, plural)

Pip-pip (British informal, dated): first used in 1907, probably because it sounds like the toot of a car horn

Toodle-oo, or tootle-oo (British informal, archaic); also Irish variant tooraloo: toodle is a variant of toddle, both meaning ‘ to walk in a leisurely manner’. Toddle-off is still used in British English, meaning wandering or tootling off.

Ta-ta / ta-ra (British informal: dated or regional): OED lists ta-ta as “a nursery version of ‘goodbye’ used playfully by adults”, first cited in 1837. Ta-ra is still used in Liverpool and Merseyside (UK), often followed by “then”, “well”, or “now”

Tatty bye: (British informal, dated): phrase made popular by comedian Ken Dodd in the 1970s

Sayonara: Japanese originally, but carries a sense of finality about it, ie. goodbye, never to see you again

And some foreign goodbyes that are used commonly in the English language:

Au revoir (French)

Adieu (French)

Auf Wiedersehen (German)

Adios (Spanish)

Arrivederci (Italian)

Ciao (Italian informal)

Timely salutations — en Anglais and en français

I’ve just got back from across the Channel, where the flavory business of salutation isn’t all just about the obligatory kissing on both cheeks, but also involves a potpourri of expressions to use at different times of the day in different contexts and settings — but largely as goodbyes rather than hellos.

In English, apart from our general hi or hello, we have four time-specific salutations: “good morning”, “good afternoon”, “good evening”, and “good night” — the latter one usually expressed as a farewell or sign-off rather than a late-evening howdy. The first and last are common in many settings, both informal and formal, spoken and written. We’re used to greeting anyone at the beginning of the day with “good morning”, and “good night” is standard between acquaintances, friends, family or lovers — whatever the circumstances of the parting (or even just before going to sleep). But “good afternoon” and “good evening” have a more limited usage, tending to be reserved for semi-formal or formal occasions — such as at a public presentation or in a broadcast, as a written greeting, or when talking to someone on the phone. You would be unlikely to say “good afternoon” or “good evening” to a family member, friend or even colleague when you see them later in the day; the generic hi, hello or even the more modern and youthful hey is

In French, these expressions at different times of the day can translate variously into either greetings or farewells. On rising, you wouldn’t say “bon matin” (“good morning”) when you open your eyes to your bed-mate or stroll into your local boulangerie to pick up your morning baguette: you would say simply bonjour — or, more politely, bonjour madame/monsieur in the latter case. The only time you might use bon matin is in the expression de bon matin, which means “bright and early”*. The same is true for “good afternoon”: the French don’t use bon après-midi as a greeting at the start of the afternoon; rather, it’s a farewell when you’re waving someone off or parting company after le dejeuner. Bonne soirée is another more time-specific version of au revoir (“goodbye”), when you’re kissing both cheeks as the afternoon draws to a close, or wishing your cherie a pleasant evening as she heads out with her friends.

Bonsoir is multi-functional: it’s the evening equivalent of either bonjour or au revoir, and it’s the only one of these time-specific words or expressions that is appropriate on both meeting and parting — in this case after about 6pm, when the evening lies ahead, together or apart. Bonne nuit (“good night”) is the final farewell of the French day, as night falls, lovers part, families and friends retire for the night, and dreams and passions beckon.

The standard French greeting at any time of day is bonjour (with the accompanying kiss on each cheek); salut is a more casual hello if you bump into a friend outside or the meeting is fleeting or unexpected. There is a French equivalent of the American service farewell “have a nice day”: bonne journée is bidden by shop-keepers, waiters, ferrymen …

Both au revoir and adieu mean goodbye — they translate literally as “to the seeing again” and “to God”. Au revoir is the more usual and casual — equivalent to “see you later”, or at least suggesting a rendezvous in the near future. Adieu is goodbye, more formal, poignant, grave or poetic; it’s more likely to be said if you don’t know how long the separation might be, or if a certain finality is implied or desired.

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*In Québec, bon matin can be used as an informal greeting between close friends and long-time colleagues. As I understand it, French-speaking Canadians and Swiss both have variations on all the above; examples and comments are welcome.

You’re not just what you eat but also what you call the meals you eat

Is this breakfast, lunch, tea, supper or dinner? Could be any of them …

Staying on the food theme, let’s address the subject of what you call each of your meals and what this says about you (at least in England until fairly recently). Here, when someone invites you to “tea”, this can mean a couple of different things, depending largely on your host’s geographical location or social class: they could be inviting you for a cup of tea and a biscuit in the mid-afternoon, or they could be asking you to join them for their evening meal. It seems to be a peculiarly British phenomenon that you can tell a lot about someone’s social class — or where they come from — simply by what they call their meals (and also by what they call some of the rooms in their houses — but that’s for a separate discussion). Beware: this is something of a linguistic minefield …

Here’s a journey through a day’s repasts in England (at least as I understand them).

Morning: Breakfast: a morning meal, from break + fast, as in “breaking the nightly fast”. This is fairly standard throughout the UK and English-speaking countries.

Mid-morning: Elevenses: a snack eaten in the morning, usually biscuits or cake (a bit like tea in the afternoon). It’s an old-fashioned term – and is a curious “double plural” of the number eleven, at which time it’s usually taken. According to Merriam-Webster, it dates back to about 1819. Its use now is confined mainly to the elderly or when speaking in jest. Wikipedia reminds us that for elevenses, Winnie-the Pooh preferred honey on bread with condensed milk; Paddington Bear often took elevenses at the antique shop on the Portobello Road; and it’s a meal eaten by Tolkien’s Hobbits between second breakfast and luncheon.

Middle of the day: Lunch/luncheon or dinner. This is where social class distinctions begin to creep in. Dinner was historically the main and most formal meal of the day, and from the Middle Ages up until the 18th century it was usually taken at midday. As working men began to travel further away from home, and it became logistically more sensible for them to take a portable, lighter meal in the middle of the day, the main meal of the day shifted to the evening, still called dinner, and the midday meal, now lighter, came to be known as luncheon, or lunch for short. However, in northern England and among the working class, the word dinner is traditionally used for the midday meal even if it’s lighter and taken to or at school or work. Hence the enduring term “school dinner”, and the English “dinner ladies” who supervise schoolchildren while they scoff or throw around their midday meal. Lunch is otherwise now fairly standard for the midday meal — throughout the English-speaking world in fact. But luncheon is reserved for more formal occasions, and is used very rarely (and somewhat pretentiously) by the upper-middle and upper classes to describe their midday repast.

Mid-afternoon: Tea or low tea: a snack — usually consisting of biscuits, a small sandwich, and/or baked goods — and a cup of tea (or coffee), to tide oneself over and provide an energy boost between the midday and evening meals. For a brief social history of the meal known as tea, and to understand the distinction between “low tea” and “high tea”, see an earlier Glossophilia post on the subject. Although “low tea” is still used in some schools and establishments, the term is now virtually obsolete and wouldn’t be understood by most Brits.

Evening: Tea/high tea, supper or dinner. As explained above, dinner historically and traditionally refers to the most substantial and formal meal of the day, which in modern times is typically taken in the evening. However, as also mentioned above, English northerners and midlanders, as well as working-class Brits, still often refer to the midday meal as dinner and then to their evening meal as tea. This word evolves from the original “high tea”: a more substantial evening meal, usually consisting of “meat and two veg” (or a similar combination) put on the table at around 6 pm for the working man of the family to return home to. However, high tea wasn’t a meal of just the working class. The middle classes would sometimes take a form of high tea in the early evening – at five or six o’clock – replacing the later evening dinner, especially if there were evening entertainments planned (much like our modern pre-theater meal) or not enough staff on duty to cook or serve dinner.

Nowadays, supper, which has always described the last meal of the day, has come to replace dinner as the standard middle- or upper-class word for the evening meal, especially when referring to the informal meal eaten at home with family members. Dinner tends to be reserved for more formal occasions, such as when inviting guests for an evening meal (you invite people to dinner), eating out in restaurants (you meet or go out for dinner), or for official or celebratory events and occasions.

Late evening (before bed): Supper refers sometimes — in some parts of the UK and in working- or middle-class usage — to a late-evening snack (similar to afternoon tea in its constitution) that follows the main evening meal and is taken before retiring. I believe it has become a rather old-fashioned name, verging on obsolete, for this particular meal.

Confused? Because this verbal meal-maze has been so studied and picked over by social historians and linguists in recent years, it’s probably been affected by an increased self-consciousness — as well as by social (both upwards and downwards) and geographical mobility — so it’s less indicative of one’s social standing or location than it used to be, and meanwhile England continues to move in the direction of a classless society. But you still might want to be mindful of all this when you receive that tea invitation — especially if it’s from a kindly northern stranger for a 5.30pm start time …

Cat’s pajamas, bee’s knees and dog’s bollocks

“You’re the cat’s whiskers!” one of my colleagues said to me recently. And I realized I didn’t know exactly what he meant — and it wasn’t an expression I had ever heard said aloud, except in old movies or shows set in the 1920s.

It was during that time that a whole collection of American expressions were coined to mean “an outstanding or excellent person or thing”, with overtones of style, class or newness (thank you Max! — although I’m pretty sure there was a touch of irony in your compliment …). The fad was to use the names of animals, body-parts and clothes in peculiar combinations, such as the flea’s eyebrows, the canary’s tusks, the eel’s ankle, the elephant’s instep, the clam’s garter, the snake’s hips, the kipper’s knickers, the sardine’s whiskers and the pig’s wings. Whereas most of these nonsensical expressions disappeared relatively quickly, three feline-themed terms — “cat’s pajamas”, “cat’s whiskers” and “cat’s miaow” — managed to stick around and they remain in use today, as does the rather charming “bee’s knees”.

As old-fashioned and archaic as they might sound today, these phrases were considered modern, clever and rather daring by the free-spirited flappers of the roaring 20s and the emerging ‘cool cats’ of the jazz age who bandied these words about. (Pajamas, by the way, were a new and fashionable article of clothing in the 1920s and therefore suitably hip for inclusion in this mod lingo.) So popular were these expressions that by the late 1920s, the ‘cat’ ones were sometimes abbreviated to just “it’s the cat’s.” All American by origin, they soon caught on in England as well. The lexicographers William and Mary Morris suggest that the “cat” phrases might have originated earlier than the ’20s, since they were reportedly first heard in girls’ schools and women’s colleges earlier in the century — at which time the terms were considerably risqué.

It’s widely believed that Tad Dorgan, the American sportswriter and cartoonist, first coined all these expressions (especially the cat ones), or at least brought them into popular usage. Dorgan created or popularized a whole “slang vernacular”, introducing into standard English a slew of now common words and phrases such as dumbbell (a stupid person), for crying out loud (an expression of astonishment), hard-boiled (referring to a tough person), and “yes, we have no bananas”, which became the title of a popular song.

I’m guessing that “the bee’s knees”, another such term still in use, endured simply because of its tidy size and tidy rhyme. According to Oxford Dictionaries, it was first recorded in the late 18th century, when it meant “something very small and insignificant”. However, its meaning changed in the 1920s — presumably to match its fellow “animal-body-part” expressions so fashionable at the time — to denote excellence. Some speculate that it derives from a comical mispronunciation of the word business, but there’s no evidence to support this idea. According to the Phrase Finder, another theory is that “bee’s knees” might have been connected to Bee Jackson, a 1920s dancer from New York who was said to have helped to popularize the Charleston by introducing the dance form to Broadway in 1924 (she went on to become a celebrated Charleston champion); “Bee’s knees” must have been fairly impressive. However, the phrase was in use before 1924, so this is also an unlikely scenario.

The British expression “dog’s bollocks”, which is thought to have originated as a printer’s term for the typographical colon dash “:-” (as Eric Partridge noted in his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English in 1949), is now widely used in the UK to mean the same as the “cat’s whiskers”. (Here’s another example of animal body-parts, with bollocks being the British slang for testicles.) The OED cites an early example of the canine term being used in the sleeve notes for the cassette tape recording of Peter Brewis’s play The Gambler: “They are of the opinion that, when it comes to Italian opera, Pavarotti is the dog’s bollocks.”

The American entree: a menu misnomer?

While we’re on the subject of food — and British-American differences in naming — let’s not forget meal parts and their monikers. In the UK, you can expect your restaurant menu to go something like this: first a starter, then a main (course), and finally a dessert, pudding, or sweet — or even afters. But an Englishman in an American restaurant might be forgiven for being confused by the entrée coming between the appetizer and the dessert: could this be a misnomer or mistranslation? (Entrée is a French word meaning “entry”, so it stands to reason that it should name the first, introductory, part of a multi-course meal.) No, there’s a perfectly good explanation for this menu curiosity …

Dan Jurafsky, on his Language of Food blog, gives a potted history of the entrée, explaining how when the word entered the English language (with the meaning of a meal part) in the mid-17th century, it actually represented the second or third dish served, not the first.

“The word entrée first appears in France in 1555. In the 16th century, a banquet began with a course called entrée de table (“entering to/of the table”) and ends with one called issue de table (“exiting the table”). … The entrée is the first course of the meal, there can be multiple entrées, and after the entrée comes the soup, one or more roasts, and then a final course.

“Over the next hundred years, this sequence began to shift slightly, with the most significant change being that by 1650 the soup was the first course, followed by the entrée.

“Let’s look at Le cuisinier françois, the famous 1651 cookbook that helped introduce modern French cuisine, to see what the word entrée meant at this time. An entrée was a hot meat dish, distinguished from the roast course. The roast course was a spit roast, usually of fowl or rabbit, while the entree was a more complicated ‘made dish’ of meat, often with a sauce, and something requiring some effort in the kitchen. The cookbook, recently translated as The French Cook, gives such lovely entrees as Ducks in Ragout, Sausages of Partridge White-Meat, a Daube of a Leg of Mutton, and Fricaseed Chicken. An entrée was not cold, nor was it composed of vegetables or eggs. (Dishes that were cold, or composed of vegetable, or eggs were called entremets, but that’s a story for another day). So the entrée in 1651 is a hot meat course eaten after the soup and before the roast.”

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We’re still hungry: what’s for pudding (or ‘pud’ for short)? And, more to the point, what is pudding?

Nowadays the word pudding describes mainly desserts, or the final (sweet) course of a meal, but it didn’t start out that way. Originally the name of a sausage made mostly of blood, it then denoted a range of savory dishes created the way the sausage was — with meat and other ingredients in a semi-liquid form encased and then steamed or boiled to solidify the contents. Only a few of those original savory puddings are still made and eaten today: black pudding (also known as blood sausage in the US) is eaten in Asia, Europe and the Americas; haggis, regarded as Scotland’s national dish, is banned in the U.S. but is still enjoyed in Scotland and by Scots around the world.

Eventually the word pudding (thought to be derived from the French word boudin, in turn from the Latin botellus, meaning “small sausage”) came to describe dessert items similar to their savory forebears in terms of their texture, presentation and cooking process; still scoffed down today are a range of stodgy items from treacle pudding to Christmas pudding. And let’s not forget that most infamous of British dessert puddings: the Spotted Dick …

In North America, pudding describes a milk-based “sweet” (that’s another British synonym for dessert, as well as being the Brits’ name for the confectionery that the Americans call candy), which resembles custards or mousses set with eggs or gelatin. Vanilla and chocolate puddings are U.S. dessert staples.

British pudding American pudding

Finally, here are a few menu miscellanies to note for kicks:

“with au jus (sauce)” (an Americanism): au jus is a French term meaning “with juice”, so “with au jus” means “with with juice”

“rice pilaf” (or “pilaf rice”): pilaf (pronounced pee-lahv, not pee-laff) means rice, so “rice pilaf” means “rice rice”

“shrimp scampi”: scampi means shrimp or prawns, so “shrimp scampi” means “shrimp shrimp”

“paninis”: the plural of panino (the Italian word for small bread roll) is panini. So there can’t be a plural of panini, which is already a plural in itself.

Finally, slightly off-topic, there’s a restaurant in Winnipeg called “Unburger” (sic). “UnBurger … sources only LOCAL meat and never freezes it.” I guess that makes it an “unburger”, right?

You say biscuit, I say cookie

Brits say jelly, Americans say jello … Here’s a list of foodstuffs and beverages that have different names depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

Please add any further examples in the comments section below. (Note that some words are used by both the English and the Americans, but in each case at least one of the names is exclusive to just one country.)

Brits Yanks

Jelly Jello

Jam Jelly

Biscuit Cookie

Griddle cake/Scotch pancake Pancake

Fairy cake Cupcake

Bun (Chelsea, sticky, currant) Pastry, or (cinnamon) roll

Bap Hamburger bun

Crisps Chips

Chips (French) fries

Jacket potato Baked potato

Sausage Breakfast sausage

Salami Sausage

Mince Ground beef / hamburger

Prawn Shrimp

Fish fingers Fish sticks

Gherkin Pickle

(Branston) pickle Relish

Courgette Zucchini

Aubergine Eggplant

Broad bean Fava bean

Cos Romaine

French/green beans String beans

Beetroot Beet

Rocket Arugula

Coriander Cilantro

Chicory Endive

Custard Egg custard

Mousse/Angel Delight Pudding

Porridge Oatmeal

Sweets Candy

Candy floss Cotton candy

Cornflour Cornstarch

Icing Frosting

Sultanas (White) raisins

White coffee Coffee with cream/milk

Apple juice (Apple) cider

Cider Hard cider

Spirits (Hard) liquor

Posterior to using prior to, do you feel just a tad pompous?

Why use “prior to” when before works just as well? Linguists and writers have explained — in tones ranging from polite to contemptuous — why “prior to” never needs to see the light of day, variously dismissing its use as affected, pompous, overworked, corporate, or inflated. Glossophilia has nothing to add (except to suggest that “prior to” might be quite useful as a crossword clue). Bryson, Shore, Bernstein, Gowers and Kimble: let it rip!

Bill Bryson summed it up nicely in his Dictionary of Troublesome Words: “Before, prior to. There is no difference between these two except length and a certain affectedness on the part of ‘prior to’. To paraphrase [Theodore] Bernstein, if you would use ‘posterior to’ instead of ‘after’, then by all means use ‘prior to’ instead of ‘before’.”

Michael Shore on his Language Lore blog brands the use of “prior to” instead of before as a hyperurbanism.

Publisher’s Weekly describes its usage: “Sometimes termed pompous or affected, prior to is a synonym of before that most often appears in rather formal contexts, such as the annual reports of corporations.”

Theodore M. Bernstein in The Careful Writer: “Prior to is a ‘‘faddish affectation for before. Would you say posterior to in place of after?’’

Roy H. Copperud in American Usage and Style: “Prior to is ‘pompous in the sense before.’’

Bryan A. Garner in A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage: ‘‘Prior to is a terribly overworked lawyerism. Only in rare contexts is it not much inferior to before.’’

Sir Ernest Gowers, The Complete Plain Words: ‘‘There is no good reason to use prior to as a preposition instead of before. Before is simpler, better known and more natural, and therefore preferable.’’

And Kimble puts it most eloquently:

Joseph Kimble in A Modest Wish List for Legal Writing: ‘‘Prior to takes the booby prize for the most common inflated phrase in legal and official writing. Why would anyone prefer it to before? Try to think of a single literary title or line that uses prior to. . . . By itself, prior to may seem insignificant. But it often leads to clumsy, indirect constructions . . . . More important, a fondness for prior to may indicate a fondness for jargon—and a blind resistance to using plain words. That resistance, that cast of mind, is in large part responsible for the state of legal writing.’’

From Amharic to Zulu, bogus to zombie: the languages and words of Africa

I’ve just returned from Morocco, where I was struck by the country’s enthralling cultural diversity, which is reflected in and epitomized by its linguistic variety (there are three standard languages spoken there: French, English and Moroccan Arabic — and that’s just the locals talking, we’re not including the tourists…). The continent of Africa is home to more than 2,100 languages — some estimate more than 3,000, many of which are spoken around the world. About a hundred African languages are used for mass inter-ethnic communication; Arabic, Amharic, Berber, Hausa, Igbo, Oromo, Somali, Swahili and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. Nigeria alone has 500 languages. Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of three large language families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger-Congo.

The Niger–Congo languages constitute Africa’s largest language family in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. The most widely spoken Niger–Congo languages by number of native speakers are Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Shona and Zulu. The most widely spoken by total number of speakers is Swahili. Although Swahili is the mother tongue to only about five million people, it is used as a lingua franca (a working, bridging or unifying language) in much of the southern half of East Africa; it serves as the official language of four nations — Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — and is one of the official languages of the African Union. The total number of Swahili speakers exceeds 140 million.

More than 300 million people speak an Afroasiatic (also known as Hamito-Semitic) language; these are spoken predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. The most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is Arabic.

Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by about 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, and extending through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa.

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Many words that we use on a daily basis are imports from the French language. Premiere, ballet, genre, unique, liaison, resume, and fiance are just a few examples. Although not nearly as numerous, there are several words in standard English that originated in Africa — including a few that are quite surprising. Did you know, for example, that bogus originally comes from the Hausa (West African) word boko-boko, meaning fake or fraudulent? Jumbo, meaning unusually large, comes originally (and via P.T. Barnum) from the Swahili jumbe or jambo, meaning elephant. And I had always assumed that tango was Spanish or Latin in origin, but it’s from an African word in the Niger-Congo family of languages meaning “to dance”.

Here are some other words that came from this most exotic and beautiful of continents:

banana: West African (possibly a Wolof word)

bozo: West African for “stupid”

dig (in the sense of to appreciate or understand): from the Wolof dega, used at the beginning of a sentence to mean either “look here” or “understand”

guys (informal word for people): David Dalby, founding director of the Linguasphere Observatory (a transnational linguistic research network), contends that there’s a direct connection between guys and the Wolof word gay, meaning person or fellow and always used in the plural form

jukebox: from juke, joog meaning “wicked, disorderly” in Gullah, probably from Wolof and Bambara dzug meaning “unsavory”

Okay: there are numerous theories about where this word — now used and understood all over the world — originated, but it’s widely believed that it might be from the Wolof expression “waw kay”, meaning “all correct”

tango: originally the name of an African-American drum dance, probably from a Niger-Congo language, eg. the Ibibio tamgu meaning “to dance”

tote: a popular theory is that this originated in West African languages: the Kikongo tota meaning “to pick up,” or the Kimbundu tuta meaning “carry, load,” related to Swahili tuta “pile up, carry”. (However, the OED disputes this etymology.)

safari: from the Swahili word meaning “to travel”

zombie: originally a Creole word “zobi”, of Bantu origin, from the Kikongo word zumbi, meaning “fetish”, and the Kimbundu word nzambi, meaning “god”, zombie was originally the name of a snake god. Zombie was first used in the 19th century to mean voodoo dead spirits. More recently it has taken on a new meaning of “automaton” or someone who looks like a robot or lifeless being.