*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of café

Unadapted borrowing from French café (“coffee; coffee shop”). Doublet of caffè and coffee.

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
noun

A coffee shop; an establishment selling coffee and sometimes other non-alcoholic beverages, simple meals or snacks, with a facility to consume them on the premises. · A small restaurant of any genre.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Unadapted borrowing from French café (“coffee; coffee shop”). Doublet of caffè and coffee.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "ubor",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "café",
        "4": "",
        "5": "coffee; coffee shop"
      },
      "expansion": "Unadapted borrowing from French café (“coffee; coffee shop”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "doublet",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "caffè",
        "3": "coffee"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of caffè and coffee"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "café",
      "café#French"
    ],
    [
      "caffè",
      "caffè#English"
    ],
    [
      "coffee",
      "coffee#English"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "A coffee shop; an establishment selling coffee and sometimes other non-alcoholic beverages, simple meals or snacks, with a facility to consume them on the premises.",
        "A small restaurant of any genre."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada"
      ],
      "recordId": "7177cb10e800d6246d8a0a42dd975235c2aaea055b99e1b6bab69dd17f4bc018",
      "rawRecordSha256": "a6d78b7f39b4c912e9607928c53e1f1c7d1492bb538909685336b59ca51c1dd7",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 126147
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for café →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-Y2Fmw6k