{"id":10770,"date":"2019-06-13T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T08:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10770"},"modified":"2019-05-23T14:36:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T14:36:12","slug":"the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-koffein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-koffein\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curiosity of the German Word \u201cKoffein\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you drink Kaffee<\/em> (coffee)? Whether you drink it because you like the\u00a0Geschmack\u00a0<\/em>(taste), just out of Gewohnheit\u00a0<\/em>(habit) or for the\u00a0Koffein\u00a0<\/em>(caffeine), it sure is a very popular\u00a0Getr\u00e4nk\u00a0<\/em>(drink). But wait a second –\u00a0Ka<\/strong><\/span>ffee\u00a0<\/em>contains\u00a0Ko<\/strong><\/span>ffein<\/em>? What’s going on here?<\/p>\n

Click here for previous entries in the series on curious words in German<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A Curious History<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Image by author based on image by Mike Kenneally at Unsplash.com<\/p><\/div>\n

So even though\u00a0Kaffee\u00a0<\/em>is written with an\u00a0a<\/em>,\u00a0Koffein\u00a0<\/em>is written with an\u00a0o<\/em>. English does a similar thing: While the\u00a0Getr\u00e4nk\u00a0<\/em>is called “coffee”, the stimulant “caffeine”. What’s up with that difference?<\/p>\n

Koffein\u00a0<\/em>was first isolated and chemically identified by German\u00a0Chemiker <\/em>(chemist) Friedlieb Runge in 1819. He called it Kaffebase <\/em>(“coffee base”).<\/p>\n

In 1821, together with a few others, his French colleague Pierre-Joseph Pelletier also managed to isolate caffeine. Pelletier became the first to publish the results in print, minting the French\u00a0caf\u00e9ine.\u00a0<\/em>English took its word “caffeine” from this French word.<\/p>\n

By that time, the drink was already known, of course. The English word “coffee” was derived from the Dutch\u00a0koffie\u00a0<\/em>in the 16th century, which in turn is probably an interpretation of the Turkish kaveh <\/em>and the Arabic qahwa <\/em>before that. Again, because the Dutch were the first to bring coffee from the Middle East to Europe.<\/p>\n

By the way: The Dutch refer to caffeine as Cafe\u00efne<\/em>. Again, a clear reference to the French.<\/p>\n

That all makes sense then. But how did the Germans not end up with\u00a0Kaffein<\/em>? It is not related to pronunciation.\u00a0Kaffein\u00a0<\/em>is fine to pronounce, and would also make sense alongside the word Kaffee<\/em>. So what is the reason?<\/p>\n

Well, ironically, it looks like the Germans aligned the chemical name with the English “coffee”, even though the English refer to the chemical as “caffeine”. An alternative way of writing is Coffein<\/em>, after all, though\u00a0Koffein\u00a0<\/em>is much more common. And that is how we got to a confusing, curious\u00a0Koffein<\/em>, even though all countries around us use\u00a0a version of the French caf\u00e9ine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t
<\/div>\n\t
<\/div>\n\t