Abstract
Abstract Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain the etymology of Old It. (zucchero) caffettino (Jaffa < Yāfā, cafis < qafīz, Caffa = Feodosia, caffa < qafaṣ, Haifa < Ḥayfā, Kafá < ?, coffa < quffa(h)). All these proposals, however, are unsustainable for reasons of cultural-historical and/or semantic, phonetic and morphological incompatibilities. In reality the etymon is the Arabic nisba adjective of the name of the Egyptian city of Qifṭ (qiftī), which in Medieval times was highly renowned for its sugar production. The Arabic equivalent of zucchero caffettino is as-sukkar al-qiftī. The phonomorphological adaptation of caffettino is absolutely regular (anaptyctical e, gemination f > ff, initial ca- < qi-, final –ī > -ino); the original type qiftī is still reflected by the ancient Italian and Romance variants chafethi, cafeti and cafati.
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