In a Word: A Whole Lot of Coffee

Senior managing editor and logophile Andy Hollandbeck reveals the sometimes surprising roots of common English words and phrases. Remember: Etymology tells us where a word comes from, but not what it means today.

The menu at a coffee house can get pretty large and complex. Not only can you choose the size of your coffee, but the type of roast, type of milk (if any), temperature, flavor additives, and even how the coffee should be brewed. And it seems that with each new thing that is done to a coffee beverage, there is a name — usually Italian — associated with it.

If you’ve ever wondered how some of those black and brown beverages got their name, wonder no more. Although the following list doesn’t cover every type of coffee drink, it does hit a lot of the more popular ones. Not all of these words have even made it into an English dictionary yet, but as coffee culture continues to expand, it’s only a matter of time.

Espresso

English speakers didn’t start to adopt the word espresso until the 1930s, but the coffee concept goes back to the last two decades of the 1880s. During that time, the coffee trade was flourishing across Europe, but because a pot could take up to five minutes to brew, customers often had to wait. Entrepreneurial inventors recognized an opportunity: If they could cut down the time it took to brew coffee, they could serve more customers and make more money!

Angelo Moriondo is generally credited with patenting the first coffeemaker that used both hot water and steam to make coffee faster — but it was for making entire pots at a time. The espresso machine as we know it didn’t appear until the early 1920s.

You probably notice that espresso looks an awful lot like the English express and, with this focus on speed, might infer that the name comes from the Italian word for “at high speed.” Espresso and express are etymologically related (from the Latin ex- “out” + pressare “press or push”), and this lexical speediness is probably one aspect that helped the name stick. But you should also know that espresso literally means “to press out,” and espresso is made by pushing hot water under high pressure through the coffee grounds.

In much of the world, espresso — or, originally, caffè espresso — is coffee, and it’s the basis from which most of these other options flow.

Doppio

Doppio is the Italian word for “double,” and that’s exactly what it is: a double shot of espresso.

Lunga

Lunga, Italian for “long,” gets its name because the coffee grounds are stretched out, in a manner of speaking. A caffè lunga (or, in French, café allongé) uses the same amount of grounds as a single espresso, but twice as much water is forced through it — creating a larger but slightly watered-down espresso.

Ristretto

Ristretto — from the Latin restringere “to bind, restrain” — is Italian for “restricted.” A ristretto starts with the same amount of coffee grounds as an espresso but uses less water. Essentially the opposite of a lunga, a ristretto contains a smaller amount of more densely flavored and caffeinated coffee than a standard espresso.

Those are your basic uncontaminated coffee choices. Now we start to add things to them:

Mocha

Today, mocha is inextricably linked to chocolate, but in the 1700s, this wasn’t the case. Some of the best coffee in the world was exported from Mocha (also spelled Mokha), a port city on the Red Sea in Yemen, so Mocha was used to reference the bean’s source. The term mocha as a mixture of coffee (not necessarily espresso) and chocolate didn’t become popular until the mid-19th century.

Though I was unable to uncover direct evidence, I surmise that the shift happened because of rich folks. Through at least the first quarter of the 1800s, chocolate was a luxury item; what’s more, it was still consumed primarily as a beverage. If you could afford chocolate, you could also afford the good coffee beans from Mocha. And if you have both of those beverages at your disposal, it wouldn’t take long to discover the joyous treat that comes from mixing them.

Cappuccino

Cappuccino first made its appearance in the 1700s — before the invention of espresso. Back then, it was simply a regular coffee with sugar and cream, which created a lighter brown beverage that was likened to the color of the brown hoods worn by Capuchin monks, who in turn took their name, as I explained in this column several years ago, from a word tracing to the Latin cappa “head covering.”

That use of cappuccino fell out of fashion after a while, but the word was revived in the 20th century after coffeemakers discovered what they could do with steam and milk. A cappuccino is roughly equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and milk foam.

Latte

Latte is Italian, from the Latin lac — both words mean “milk.” A caffè latte, literally “coffee milk,” is espresso mixed with approximately six times more steamed milk and then topped with a small layer of milk foam. The latte is built by pouring the espresso in first, followed by the steamed milk — which mixes with the espresso to create an even texture throughout — and then topping it off with the milk foam.

Macchiato (Two Ways)

Macchiato is the Italian word for “stained, spotted.” A caffè macchiato — whether you think of it as a “spotted coffee” or “stained coffee” — might not sound tempting, but it is an apt name: It’s traditionally an espresso with a dollop of milk foam on top, creating a literal white spot on top of dark espresso.

If you order a macchiato at your neighborhood Starbucks, this is what you’ll get, but there is also a newer drink called a latte macchiato “stained milk,” which is essentially a latte built backward: the steamed milk and milk foam go in first, and then the espresso is poured over the top. This creates a different flavor in the first sips and creates a more layered texture than a latte.

Cortado

While most of these beverage names come from Italian, this one is Spanish. The verb cortar means “to dilute or cut.” Cortado is the past participle form (that is, “diluted”). A cortado combines roughly equal amounts of espresso and steamed milk, to cut the bitterness but still bring out the coffee flavor.

Americano

This is another Spanish term. An Americano is espresso that has been diluted with hot water, originally on the belief that this relatively weak coffee was preferred by Americans — hence the name. And yes, in the mid-20th century, Americano was meant to be disparaging.

After-Dinner Coffee

Many people (me included) like to enjoy a nice cuppa with their pie, cake, or other sweet dessert following the main course. But coffee can be more intricately incorporated into a post-prandial treat:

An affogato is created by pouring hot espresso over ice cream or gelato. Affogato (tracing to Latin ob- “against” + fauces “throat”) means “drowned” in Italian, a fitting name for a scoop of ice cream that is drowned in hot coffee.

For a more adult twist, ask for a corretto, which is an espresso with an added bit of liquor — usually grappa, a type of brandy made from the solid grape leftovers after wine making. (Sambuca is another common additive.) Corretto means “corrected” in Italian. According to historian Diana Garvin, such a “correction” to coffee is likely related to the rise of Mussolini and Fascism in early-20th-century Italy: “When tariffs on coffee went up, it once again became an elite beverage,” she says. “Rather than go without, people created coffee substitutes using orzo and chicory. One thing that makes these bitter beverages taste better is adding alcohol.”