When and why “delicious coffee” will be considered the norm, not a mistake

"Delicious coffee" has long been a symbol of illiteracy. However, those who use the neuter word "coffee" are not so wrong.

History of "coffee" in Russian

This word was first used Elephants and coffee: someone else's as their own / K. BUT. Bogdanov. About crocodiles in Russia. Essays from the history of borrowings and exoticisms in 1665, in a recipe that a doctor wrote out to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Moreover, the doctor mentioned "coffee" in the neuter gender: "Boiled coffeeKnown by the Persians and Turks, and usually taken after dinner, a hefty one is a medicine against arrogance, runny nose and headache. "

The national corpus of the Russian language givesCoffee / Russian National Corpus examples of the use of the word from the beginning of the 18th century. Since 1734 we have foundKofiy / Russian National Corpus

variant "kofiy", and since 1743 it is foundCoffee / Russian National Corpus and "coffee". That is, the borrowed name of the drink on Russian soil received additional forms that were masculine.

By itself, "coffee" was also used both in the neuter gender and in the masculine - fluctuations were from the very beginning use of this word, this is not a feature of modernity. On the one hand, in Dutch, German and French, it is a masculine noun. And the Russian nobles, who knew European languages ​​well, probably carried this characteristic into their native language. At least in the 19th century, the masculine gender was predominant.

On the other hand, the middle one did not disappear anywhere, because the form of the word asks for it. In Russian, nouns that end in "e" usually refer to the neuter gender: "field", "blade", "cafe" (by the way, a relativeCafe / M. Vasmer. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language our hero). And the word "coffee" in its characteristics should also be likened to them. Native speakers feel this, and therefore use it in the neuter gender.

"Coffee" as a neuter noun was used by the writers Andrei Bely and Alexei Tolstoy. In the work of Mikhail Bulgakov "Notes of a Dead Man (Theatrical Novel)" there is such a sentence: "There was coffee in a cup on the writing table." And Ivan Bunin, Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Brodsky used both male and middle genus. The heroes of Nabokov's novel "The King, Lady, Jack" drink "morning coffee", and in the Russian translation of "Lolita" the author himself approved the version of "morning coffee".

What dictionaries say

In 1909, V. Dolopchev, which says that "coffee" should be neuter, and masculine is illiteracy. However, this point of view did not take root in educated circles: the tradition turned out to be too strong.

Most modern reference books say that this is a masculine noun. However, despite all the indignation of the Grammar-Nazi, some dictionaries write that "coffee" in colloquial speech canCoffee / Spelling academic resource "ACADEMOS" of the Institute of the Russian language. IN. IN. Vinogradov RAS be neuter. That is, in a casual conversation, this is no longer mistake.

Many may be indignant: they say, this is all modern philologists have invented, but before people were more literate, you will not find such an outrage in old dictionaries. Well, Ushakov's dictionary saysCoffee / Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, ed. D. N. Ushakova the same, and this is one of the oldest authoritative sources.

What will happen next

“Coffee” has “brothers” - words that were also once masculine, but because of their phonetic appearance have moved into the middle category: “cocoa”, “piano”, “coat”, “metro”. Yes, “it's time for me to drink myNational corpus of the Russian language cocoa "at Turgenev," our oldNational corpus of the Russian language piano "by Leskov," it had a light greenNational corpus of the Russian language Herzen's coat ”is not the strangeness of the classics. And once upon a time there was a newspaper "Soviet Metro". However, native speakers rightly sensed the neuter gender in these words.

Coffee tends to do the same. Now a lot of attention is drawn to this word, and the use of the masculine form has become an indicator of literacy, which artificially restrains the natural change kind. Most likely, it will happen, but when it depends on the activity of the purists. Today, in a colloquial context, neuter gender is acceptable, but in official speech masculine is still considered the only norm.