156
NOTES AND QUERIES, rio s. xn. AUG. 21, im
" COFFEE " : ITS ETYMOLOGY (10 S. xii.
64, 111 ). I hardly think it necessary to
derive this word from an imaginary Turkish
kafve, as the ordinary word, qahveh, which
belongs to Persia as well as Turkey, sum-
ciently accounts for the English coffee.
French cafe, and German Kaffee. Nor do I
coffe, and therefor had in esteemation." 1
This rather looks as if on the coast of Arabia,
and in the mercantile towns, the Persian,
pronunciation was in vogue; whilst in the
interior, where Jourdain travelled, the
Englishman reproduced the Arabic. The
passage from Revett is of interest, as it is
quite understand why Sir James Murray apparently the earliest instance of a pro-
and MR. JAMES PLATT should transliterate
the Arabic word as qahwah and the Turkish
as kahveh. The Turks have not changed the mariner, in entering the word in his log,
initial letter of the word, known amongst was influenced by the abstruse principles of
Anglo-Indian munshls as the " round ga/." phonetics enunciated by MB. V. CHATTO-
It is found in the TurkI language as well as PADHYAYA. Edward Terry (1616), like-
in the Arabic. MB. PLATT would not, I Evelyn in his Balliol days (1637), spells the
fancy, pronounce the word qard, black, as if word coffee, as we do at the present day.
it were Curragh, which an untutored ear
might think it resembled.
It may, however, be pointed out that the
W. F. PBIDEAUX.
WINDOWS FROM CHURCH AT TBIEB (10
European languages did get one form of the x ii. 109). By a curious coincidence MB.
name directly from the Arabic qahwah. J\ S. EDEN'S inquiry appears on the opposite
For the history of the word Yule and Bur- p age to that on which I ask for information
nell's ' Hobson-Jobson ' is perhaps more about Edmund, Baron de Harold. The satisfactory than the ' N.E.D.' We find,
e
for instance, Chaoua in 1598, Cahoa in 1610, Cahue in 1615; while Sir Thomas Herbert (1638) expressly states that "they drink [in Persia]., above all the rest , Coho or Copha : by Turk and Arab called Caphe and Cahua." Here the Persian, Turkish, and Arabic pronunciations are clearly differ- entiated. There is another witness to the Anglo-Arabic pronunciation whose evidence was not available when the ' N.E.D.' and 'Hobson-Jobson ' articles were written. This is John Jourdain, a Dorsetshire sea- man, whose Diary was printed by
the
able
On
Hakluyt Society n 1905 under the
editorship of Mr. William Foster.
28 Mav 1 60Q hp rpoordcs that z may, i oy, ne records tnat
" in the afternoone wee departed out of Hatch [Al- Hauta, the capital of the Lahej district near Aden],
letters of the Baron's which I have are five
addressed to Thomas Astle, and in the
second of them (Dusseldorf, 6 Aug., 1779)
are the following words :
haye t you an Entire Window with excellent figures, arid when I get some more that has been promis'd me I will send them to you care- fully pack'd up."
Later De Harold wrote to the same cor- respondent ("Dusseldorf, le [ ] 8bre r
1780 ") :
take the Libert of writi to by the
bearer, Mr. Rohan, a young gentleman who has-
studied painting here for some time; he has been sc*
obliging as to furnish me with a method [of] sending
u two p* 868 ' in one of which are two pair of large
1 horns ' and m the other some Pf nted lass - should [_ ha]ve sent them i ong sincej but as 1 was
n daily expectation of getting some excellent painted glass from a Monastry here I postpon'd
and travelled untill three in themprninge, and then from Day to Day. I have not been successful yet
wee rested in the plaine fields untill three the next do not as yet despair of getting them. I shewed
"
daie, neere unto a cohoo howse in the desert.
them to Mr. Rohan who admired them, and think*
consequently shall use every endeavour to procure
them for you."
__. A ,. ,. .
Thomas Astle an antiquary of some import-
ance in his day seems to have been m- terested in stained glass, for the first of these letters, though dealing with much else, endorsed "Painted glass." He had a
On 5 June the party, travelling from Hippa the Y are worthy of more Care and your acceptance,
/TKK\ ^
M *k 11 i
" laye in the mountaynes, our camells being weane
and our selves little better. This mountain is called Nasmarde [Nakll Sumara], where all the cohoo grows."
Further on was
"a little village, where there is sold cohoo and
fruite. The seeds of this cohoo isagreate marchan- great friend in George Cressener, who was
dize, for it is carried to grand Cairo and all other for some years at Bonn as " British Minister
places of Turkey, and to the Indias." Plenipotentiary to the Electors of Ments,
It may, however, be mentioned that another Triers, Cologne, and the Circle of Westphalia,""
sailor, William Revett, in his Journal (1609) and it is possible that he, through Cressener,,
says, referring to Mocha, that " Shaomer obtained possession of the glass in question.
Shadli [Shaikh 'AH bin ' Omar esh-Shadili] I have about seventy of Cressener's letters
was the fyrst inventour for drynking of ' to Astle (1771-80), but have not noticed in