From beans to insults: Malta's love affair with kafè

How many times can Pawlu Borg Bonaci say ‘kafè’ in 30 seconds?

At least 15 times.

The latest clip - the fourth in a series that is being put together by Times of Malta and Dizzjunarju.mt features the household entertainer go on a whole spiel about coffee: all kinds of coffee.

The Maltese love their coffee - tal-magna (machine), tal-mitħna (grinder) or tal-istanjata (pot), and historic documents show that the coffee bean (kafena) - in Maltese – has been around, in Malta, for at least 400 years.

Documents detail the presence of coffee in Malta, which was served in cafés (ħanut tal-kafè) and taverns, among others. Interestingly, a 17^th-century document at the National Archives even details how, for the perfect cup of coffee, you need coffee beans (kafeni), a coffee pot made of copper... and to know how to recite the Apostles’ Creed.

Coffee, it was recommended, should be drunk after the process of decantation, which takes as long as it takes to recite the prayer.

No wonder then, that the word kafè has gone on to mean things other than the coffee drink.

If someone sends somebody packing, we say “bagħtu jieħu kafè” (literal translation: he sent him to get/have a coffee), while if someone is worthless, useless or even feeling unwell and out of sorts, we can also say “ma jiswiex kafè” (literal translation: he is not worth a coffee).

If all this talk has given you a taste for more, don't just go for a coffee; go look up kafè on Dizzjunarju.mt.

And if you think the researchers have missed out on a meaning, get in touch here. 

Dizzjunarju.mt is a free, authoritative and up-to-date reference resource that has started taking shape and went live on June 19.

It is accessible on any mobile device. It is set to become the first national digital dictionary of Maltese and is currently being developed by the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta.

It builds on the work done in the sector over the past decades while remaining abreast of the current use of the language and will take years to compile.

Among others, its features include a pronunciation tab, definitions in Maltese and English equivalents, grammatical information such as which part of speech the word falls under, its plural, root (għerq) and etymology.

The site also provides information about the various meanings of a word, examples based on the natural use of the language, idioms and phrases.