Talk:cà phê

French derivation

It's probably from French, as they were the most active European nation in Vietnam in historical times. Possibly from Portuguese or another European language, but it's probably French. 24.29.228.33 23:49, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Etymology

Also recorded in Petit dictionnaire français-annamite (1884, pp. 289, pp. 290), by Pétrus Trương Vĩnh Ký:

CAFÉ sm. Trà-phe.

Une tasse de —, một chén nước trà-phe.

Tasse à —, chén uống trà-phe.

— au lait, trà-phe bổ sữa.

Prendre du —, uống trà-phe.

CAFÉ s m. Quán trà-phe; quán rượu-trà.

Aller au —, đi nhà-quán uống rượu.

CAFÉIER s m. Cây trà-phe.

CAFETIÈRE s f. Bình trà-phe.

The use of trà, as well as many other Southernisms throughout the book, shows that trà-phe was a Southern Vietnamese term for “coffee” at the time (consistent with the author's background).

Lexique franco-annamite (1903) by H. Ravier and J.B. Dronet, recording what appears to be Northern speech (“au Tonkin Occidental”), only has the translation of cà phe for CAFÉ. Cours de langue annamite (1901) by J.N. Chéon, published in Hanoi, also uses cà phe or cà phê exclusively throughout (five mentions of café).

Also see Talk:咖啡. Wyang (talk) 04:37, 22 February 2018 (UTC)