Actually, it is by no means certain that this word is Arabic in origin, coffee and cafe etymologically speaking passed through Arabic but it may from the name of a region in Ethiopia: to quote the old unrevised OED 'Some have conjectured that it is a foreign, perhaps African, word disguised, and have thought it connected with the name of Kaffa in the south Abyssinian highlands, where the plant appears to be native.' although the standard etymology links it to an Arabic vb.-root qahiya ‘to have no appetite.’

---

From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, 20 September, 2009 7:36:08 AM
Subject: Re: old yerp

(minor correction)

Pam

there's nothing I can see in the poem that indicates GWBush is specifically intended (Old Europe is a hackneyed usage of hoary provenance) and certainly not 'old yerp'.

Formulations like 'coffee shop' are normal in English. In the sense that it's used as a demotic alternative to the frenchified 'cafe' it's probably yet another echo of the dual parentage of the language (I know the etymology of 'coffee' is Turkish-Arabic, that's another matter, he said, warily, glancing over his shoulder).

Concise Oxford definition of 'cafe' = 'coffee shop'.

As for colonies, I've never owned one.

2009/9/20 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>

Pam

there's nothing I can see in the poem that indicates GWBush is specifically intended (Old Europe is a hackneyed usage of hoary provenance) and certainly not 'old yerp'.

Formulations like 'coffee shop' are normal in English. In the sense that it's used as a demotic alternative to the frenchified 'cafe' it's probably yet another echo of the dual parentage of the language (I know the etymology of is Turkish_Arabic).

Concise Oxford definition of 'cafe' = 'coffee shop'.

As for colonies, I've never owned one.

2009/9/19 Pam Brown <[log in to unmask]>

Dear David,

In one of my poems on The Argotist Online the reference to 'old europe' is an ironic reference to George W Bush's use of the term pronounced, by him, 'old yerp'.

Happy to hear you say 'coffee shop' in Britain, perhaps that's its origin in the colony (that's ironic too).

Regards,
Pam Brown


___________________________________________________________

Blog : http://thedeletions.blogspot.com/
Web site : http://pambrownbooks.blogspot.com/
Associate editor : Jacket - http://jacketmagazine.com/
___________________________________________________________

     __________________________________________________________________________________
Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail.
Learn more: http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/

--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw

--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw