Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is coffee. Coffee is made by roasting and grinding coffee beans and creating an infusion. The word coffee entered English around 1600 via the Dutch ‘koffie’, which comes from the Turkish ‘kahveh', from the Arabic ‘qahwah’. So far we’ve looked at the words espresso, cappuccino, macchiato, and latte. Our final word of the month is Americano. An Americano is made by adding hot water to espresso, and the word is simply Italian for ‘American coffee’. One popular theory behind the origin of the Americano ...
Work your way from a Spelling Newbie to a Spelling Grandmaster by earning achievement points! New Student Titles are now live on Spellzone. Click here to learn how many points you need for each level. If you are a teacher, you can find out a student’s current level by clicking on the star on their profile picture. We have also added Student Titles to the results overview spreadsheet. You can download this at the bottom of your student roll and class pages. We have recently added a bank of Tier 2 words to our Curriculum Word Lists page. Tier 2 words are less common than high frequency words (Tier 1) and are often integral to the compre...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is coffee. Coffee is made by roasting and grinding coffee beans and creating an infusion. The word coffee entered English around 1600 via the Dutch ‘koffie’, which comes from the Turkish ‘kahveh', from the Arabic ‘qahwah’. So far we’ve looked at the words espresso, cappuccino, and macchiato. Today’s word is latte. Latte literally means ‘milk coffee’ and refers to an espresso served with hot milk. The word comes from the Latin ‘lac’ meaning ‘milk’. ...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is coffee. Coffee is made by roasting and grinding coffee beans and creating an infusion. The word coffee entered English around 1600 via the Dutch ‘koffie’, which comes from the Turkish ‘kahveh', from the Arabic ‘qahwah’. So far we’ve looked at the words espresso and cappuccino. Today’s word is macchiato. A macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of milk added to it. In Italian, the word means ‘stained’ or ‘spotted’ and it was first used in reference to coffee when baristas needed to differentiate between esp...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is coffee. Coffee is made by roasting and grinding coffee beans and creating an infusion. The word coffee entered English around 1600 via the Dutch ‘koffie’, which comes from the Turkish ‘kahveh', from the Arabic ‘qahwah’. Last week we looked at the word espresso and today’s word is cappuccino. A cappuccino is made by topping an espresso with hot frothed milk. In Italian, the word cappuccino is the diminutive of ‘cappuccio’ meaning ‘hood’ (from the Latin ‘caputium’ – where we also get the word ‘cap&rsqu...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is coffee. Coffee is made by roasting and grinding coffee beans and creating an infusion. The word coffee entered English around 1600 via the Dutch ‘koffie’, which comes from the Turkish ‘kahveh', from the Arabic ‘qahwah’. Our first coffee-themed word this month is espresso. An espresso is a shot of coffee made by forcing steam through finely ground coffee beans. It is served in a small (2-3 oz) cup. The word comes from the Latin ‘exprimere’ meaning ‘press out' or 'squeeze out’. ...
Many of us can’t get through the day without our caffeine fix, but how many of know the origins behind our coffee words? Today we’re going to take a look at five different types of coffee beverage and how they got their names. To learn more about the origin of the word ‘coffee’ itself, click here. Espresso Espresso is made by forcing steam through finely ground coffee beans. The word comes from the Latin ‘exprimere’ meaning ‘press out, squeeze out’. The rest of the coffees explored in this blog post are made using espresso as a base. Macchiato A macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of milk added to it. In Italian, the...
Coffee is a morning ritual for many, a source of comfort for others, and for most an invaluable tool to get us through a long day at the office. However you look at it, the familiar inky beverage has become one of the world’s favourite drinks. It’s a Word for Wednesday that many of us will use on a daily basis (I know I do!) but where does it come from and why is it so remarkably similar almost in every language? Despite preconceptions we might have of coffee (think Italian ‘espresso’, or a big American ‘cup of Joe’) coffee, like alcohol comes from the Arabic tradition. The best coffee is considered to come from the Arabica bean, native to the Yemen ...
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