What kind of word coffee is masculine or neuter in Russian, it or he according to the new rules

The Russian language regularly undergoes changes, develops and transforms. Discussions take place between philologists and linguists based on historical and literary research. Many new terms come into our language from other countries, some leave or are modified. The established norms of the Russian language are being transformed. Why did such discussions flare up around the word “coffee”.

For a long time it belonged to the masculine gender. Based on the new reform of 2016, by order of the Ministry of Education and Science, it is allowed to speak a word in the neuter form. However, controversy on this topic continues to this day.

To find out what kind of “coffee” is in Russian, it is necessary to consider it from a linguistic and lexical point of view. Find out the origin and stages of word formation.

What are loanwords

Any language is a living organism, and the Russian language is no exception. People traveled, and Russian people too - they themselves traveled around the world and met overseas guests. One day they brought with them an interesting drink called coffee. The drink was thick and invigorating, and that’s when Rus' learned about the existence of coffee.

The drink is mine, what is the name of the drink? Coffee - coffee is mine. So for many years coffee had a masculine gender as a noun. However, everything flows and everything changes. Human speech is also changing. It is inconvenient for people to constantly “break” their intuitive perception of the gender of nouns - on issues of belonging. Of course, it is intuitively much easier to say “coffee is mine” than “coffee is mine.”

Morphological and syntactic properties of the word

According to literary sources, “coffee” is a common inanimate noun, indeclinable. M.r., sr.r. (colloquial). It does not decline in cases and does not change the plural ending. The stress is constant in all cases and numbers.

And yet, how true it is: “delicious” or “delicious” coffee.

A little history about coffee

When coffee came to Russia, it was drunk only in the highest circles and was called not coffee, but “coffee.” Accordingly, it is clear that “kofiy” is masculine. Kofiy, whose is he? He is mine.

Subsequently, it became more and more difficult to pronounce the letter y in this word “kofiy”, sometimes it was simply swallowed during rapid speech. And first “kofi” remained, and then “i” turned into the letter “e”. Sometimes “coffee” was simply called “coffee”:

• Come and have some coffee.
• I have amazingly tasty, aromatic coffee.

And here again “coffee” acted as a masculine word. Contrary to all the rules of the Russian language, the word “coffee” entered Russian everyday life as a masculine word. It has become illiterate to say otherwise.

Etymology (origin) of the word

Turning to the origins, its origins are very ambiguous. According to some sources, coffee came to us from the English language; according to another version, the word comes from the name of the Kaffa region in Ethiopia, where the coffee tree was first grown.

In Rus' it appeared along with the product itself in the 18th century. The appearance and spread of this aromatic drink on Russian soil was facilitated by Peter the Great, who ordered coffee to be served at his meetings. Then this delicious drink became available to the common people. The word was pronounced "coffee" or "coffee" and was masculine. Over time, the ending “y” dropped out and the word began to be spoken in a modern way, but the gender remained masculine. Today, the inflected forms of coffee and coffee have become archaic and are used only in common parlance, and even then extremely rarely. On this basis, contradictions arose in the correctness of its use of words. In accordance with the rules of native speech, terms with foreign roots, which mean singular inanimate objects ending in -о, -е, belong to the neuter gender. Therefore, disputes arise in the philological environment.

Relying solely on the historical origin of the word, it is impossible to reliably determine the gender of the word coffee in Russian.

What does the word "coffee" mean?

In modern Russian, this word has several meanings.

• Plant . Trees of the Rubiaceae genus, belonging to various varieties and species. All of them produce juicy fruits with large grains. They are referred to as “coffee trees.”
• Beans obtained by processing the fruits of the coffee tree. It is correct to say "beans or beans of coffee".
• Ground bean powder is ground coffee.
• The finished drink , which is obtained by brewing or infusing ground beans, is natural coffee.
• Extract from ground grains , on the basis of which instant drinks are prepared - instant coffee.

In all meanings, the word retains the masculine gender, singular number and invariability in cases.

Discussion continues

When in 2012 it was allowed to speak the word “coffee” as a neuter word, a fierce debate on this topic broke out among lovers of the Russian language. The people were divided into two camps - some argued that the word “coffee” is masculine - this has always been and will always be so, and there is no point in imposing on uneducated ignoramuses their vision of what kind of coffee. Another camp argued with this, arguing that according to all the laws of the Russian language, the word coffee is neuter and so it is simpler and there is no need to explain why we cannot say “coffee is mine,” but must say “coffee is mine.”

What kind of coffee?

For our part, we understand both the first and second groups of people, lovers of the Russian language. But I would like to say, as one famous scientist said: coffee is still masculine.

A foreign word - let it be what it was, and not mimic it into our dictionary under the guise of a Russian word. There's nothing for a stranger to do here. And in general, drinking coffee is harmful). Although very tasty. But, we repeat, it is quite possible to say about coffee that it is neuter.

In general, there are a lot of foreign words that have entered the Russian language; you can see what kind of words they are: chimpanzee, jury, penalty. This is also very interesting.

The meaning of the word coffee

or Coffee (Coffea L.) is a genus of plants from the madder family (see). Shrubs or small trees. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs or in threes, leathery, perennial or herbaceous, entire, equipped with stipules. Flowers are in the corners of the leaves, sit in clusters, rarely solitary, white, bisexual, often fragrant. The number of parts in the calyx and corolla ranges from 4 to 9, but mostly 5. The corolla is fused-petaled with a short or long tube. The ovary is solid, round or almost cylindrical, 2-locular, contains 1 ovule in each ovule; the style is divided into 2 filamentous stigmas. The fruit is berry-shaped, with 2 seeds. There are 20 species that grow wild in hot countries of Africa and Asia. The most famous species is Coffea arabica L. A tree 6 to 8 meters high, with outstretched branches; the leaves are leathery, glossy, opposite, 14 centimeters long, oblong or ovate-oblong, pointed. Flowers in bunches of 3 and 7 in the corners of the leaves, white fragrant - quintuple; The oblong fruit is red, and at the end purple, oval, 14 millimeters long. The seeds are oblong, flat-convex, with their flat sides facing each other, on which a longitudinal groove is noticeable. Consist of horny endosperm (protein); embryo with ovoid cotyledons. These seeds are known to everyone under the name coffee or coffee. K. comes from East Africa, from Abyssinia. K. was transported to Arabia at the end of the 15th century, but it began to spread in Europe no earlier than the middle of the 17th century. Currently, it is bred in all tropical countries of the Old and New Worlds, where the average summer temperature is not lower than 14½ R. The first attempts to breed K. were made by the Dutch in Java in 1650 and in Suriname in 1718. In 1722, K. began to be bred by the French in Martinique and by the British in Jamaica. The first cargo of Javanese K. arrived in Holland in 1719. K. varieties are numerous. The lower grades are supplied by Brazil, in quantities of about half of the K. produced throughout the globe. Then come Javanese (1/5 of the total production), Ceylon (1/10). Mocha is the least traded - only about 8 million pounds, while the Brazilian variety produces more than 200 million. Mocha is considered the best, but there is no real mocha in the trade at all not available: this name refers to African, exported through Cairo. African varieties partly go through Mocha. Indian seeds are distinguished by large seeds, and mocha seeds are small. Among the American ones, Martinique and some Peruvian ones are considered the best. K. seeds, or as the Germans call them, coffee beans (Kaffee-Bohnen) contain a special alkaloid caffeine, close to the theine of tea and theobromine of chocolate, and caffeic tannic acid. K. the tree begins to bear fruit in the third year, but rarely lasts more than 12 years. It blooms and bears fruit throughout the year, but the main harvests occur in spring and autumn. After collection, the pulp of the fruit is separated in various ways from the seeds, which are dried, but this is not always possible due to the enormity of the collection; therefore, cleaning has to be done gradually, which often reduces the quality of the product. Another species of C., relatively recently discovered in Africa, namely in western: Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Angola, is C. lieberica Hiern. It is distinguished by its large leaves, twice as large as the leaves of the common K., and larger flowers, the corolla of which consists of 6 and even 9 petals. The fruits are much larger. The yield of Liberian K. is greater than usual. Currently, products of this new variety are already commercially available. The culture of ordinary K. in rooms on windows and in greenhouses works very well. It requires nutritious turf soil and moderate watering; with good care it bears fruit. See Coffee (hygienic).

A. Beketov.

Coffee (hygienic). — By the name coffee we mean the beans of the coffee tree freed from the pulp, from the outer, and partly also from the inner seed coat (see Coffee; botanist). Its homeland is considered to be southern Abyssinia, mainly the lands of Caffa and Galla, from where in the 15th century. the tree was transplanted to Arabia and Constantinople. K., which began to spread throughout Europe in the mid-17th century, was exported almost exclusively from the port city of Mocha in Arabia, selling at a fabulous price - 300 francs per kilogram. Currently, coffee plantations are grown throughout the tropical and subtropical zone. Each hectare of coffee plantation contains about 900 trees, each of which produces from 2.5 to 12.5 pounds of coffee seeds throughout the year. The coffee fruit, which in appearance and color resembles a small cherry, contains two coffee beans adjacent to each other with their flat sides, surrounded by tender seed (inner) and parchment-like (outer) seed coats and fruit pulp. To clean coffee beans from pulp and shells, different plantations use different methods, depending mainly on whether they sell completely ripe beans (the best varieties) or whether they also use not quite ripe ones. In the first case, the berries that fell when the tree was shaken are dried for some time in the sun, after which it is easy to crush them and remove them from the beans; in the second case , not quite ripe berries picked Purified K. either immediately goes on sale or is left for several years in cool, well-ventilated areas for further ripening, and its weight is significantly reduced, often by a whole third; but similar, aged K. greatly benefits in quality, acquiring a particularly strong and pleasant aroma after frying. Studies carried out on the comparative weight of both poor varieties of K. (Haiti, Guadeloupe, etc.) and those with good aroma, smell and taste of expensive varieties (Mocha, Java, Ceylon) proved very noticeable gravimetric differences between them: for example, 1 deciliter Ceylon beans weigh 508 g, Java - 450, Mocha - 5*0 g, Rio de Janeiro - 522, Haiti - 642, Venezuela - 654, Guadeloupe - 660 g. Depending on the place of origin, there are many varieties of beans, somewhat different from each other, in addition to the special specific smell and taste they develop during frying, also in the color of the beans, their shape, their different length, width and thickness, and the greater or lesser concavity of the front side beans, different concavity of the grooves located on their front surface, etc. The best variety is considered to be the Arabian K. "mocha", with very small (8-11 mm in length, 7-8 mm in width and 3-4 mm in thickness) ovoid, dark yellow , with green beans that have a very pleasant aroma. consumption in various European countries is expressed in the following figures (per year per person): in the Netherlands - 7.14 kilograms, in Belgium - 4.24, in Norway - 3.45, in Switzerland - 3.01, in Denmark - 2.45, in Germany - 2.38, in Sweden - 2.39, in France - 1.43, in Austria-Hungary - 0.84, in Italy - 0.47, in England - 0.45, in Russia - 0.1 kg (1/4 lb). Possessing a strong, astringent taste and extremely difficult to turn into powder, raw coffee beans are not consumed directly to prepare a decoction, but are first subjected to a roasting process, during which, depending on its degree, more or less profound physical and chemical changes occur in the coffee beans. Taking on, depending on the temperature and duration of its action, a reddish-brown or dark brown color, K., due to the expansion of its tissues, due to the expansion of gases formed during frying, significantly increases in volume (by 1/3 and even 1/2 ), and next to this its weight decreases by approximately 17-20%. Further, along with the loss of almost the entire amount of water and sugar and the destruction of a significant part of the fiber, in coffee beans, when they are fried, special burnt substances and frying products are formed (palmitic, acetic and carbonic acids, caeol, hydroquinone, methylamine, pyrrole, etc. .), of which coffee oil - kafeol, is mainly attributed to the specific taste and aroma inherent in burnt coffee, and some are also attributed to the increase in the strength and frequency of heart contractions caused by coffee.

The composition of raw and fried K. is expressed, according to Koenig, in the following figures: composition of raw K.: water - 11.2% or more (in dry matter), fat - 14.9%, proteins - 13.8%, sugar - 3.66%, fiber - 31.24%, caffeine - 1.34%, ash - 3.92%, hot water soluble substances - 30.93%; composition of fried K.: water - 3.19% or more (in dry matter), fat - 16.14%, proteins - 14.28%, sugar [Other researchers found even less sugar in K. (0.17% - 0.47%). The low sugar content in fried K. serves, as we will see below, a very characteristic feature that distinguishes K. from the very sugar-rich surrogates, chicory and wine berries that are most often added to it for the purpose of adulteration.] - 1.35%, fiber - 25.07, caffeine - 1.42%, ash - 3.87%, soluble substances - 30.6. As can be seen from the data given, K. gives about 30% of the substances to the hot solution; with the method of preparing coffee decoction used in the hostel, about 25% of the extractive substances are transferred into the latter; according to Koenig's analyses, in a K. cup prepared from 10 g. substances, 0.5 g is transferred. fat, 0.4 g. minerals and 0.5 g. nitrogen (from caffeine), therefore, K. should be viewed only as a flavoring substance that excites the central nervous system, and not as a food substance, as Payen, Liebig and Rohleder erroneously propagated in their time. From the experiments of Voith, Py and Gerlein, it is clear that K. does not slow down the processes of decomposition of nitrogenous substances in the body and, therefore, does not serve as a material that preserves the body’s tissues; however, when drunk, as is usually done, with milk, bread, or sugar, K. indirectly is a very good conductor of nutrients rich in nitrogen, fat and carbohydrates. Coffee’s widespread popularity is mainly due to its stimulating effect on the nervous system, due to the content of caffeine and caféol, which is why when consumed it increases the frequency and energy of heart contractions and temporarily increases working capacity, both spiritual and physical. K. differs significantly from alcohol in that the effect it stimulates is longer, and on the other hand, after the period of excitement, depression does not set in, as with alcohol consumption, which is why hygienists, not without reason, see in the widespread development of cheap coffee (and tea) shops a powerful, a good competitor in the fight against alcoholism. It should not be forgotten, however, that abuse of the drink, especially chronic, often leads to disorders in the sensory and motor areas, which is why you should refrain from using it in case of certain diseases of the nervous system (epilepsy, hysteria, etc.), as well as in cases of some heartache. It is also impossible not to warn against the use of K. in childhood. “We are firmly convinced,” say Rossbach and Nothnagel, “that premature consumption of strong K., also, of course, tea, is one of those many factors that give rise to a neuropathic disposition, and if it exists hereditarily, then contributes to its further development.” . K. is usually fried until chestnut brown (care must be taken not to overcook it); at home - in a frying pan set over hot coals, or even better, in a closed brazier; in factories - with superheated steam. To prevent aromatics from escaping, roasted beans should be kept in a tightly sealed container; It is best to grind K. just before drinking the drink, for the preparation of which the finely ground powder is doused with boiling water and infused without boiling for 5-10 minutes; with longer infusion or boiling, too much tannic acid, burnt and bitter substances pass into the solution, causing the aroma of the potion to deteriorate and weaken and its taste to deteriorate.

All kinds of dried, fried and ground substances from the plant kingdom serve as substitutes for K. (its surrogates) roots - chicory, beets, carrots, dandelion; b) substances rich in sugar - burnt molasses sugar, wine berries, Constantinople pods; c) substances rich in starch - acorns of various types of oak, rye, barley, oats, wheat, barley malt, etc.; d) seeds of leguminous plants - common peas, coffee peas (Astragalus boeticus), Chinese beans (Soja hispida), common beans, lupins or fava beans, etc., f) fat-rich substances - common walnut, as well as American, walnut, groundnut etc. Containing neither caffeine nor caféol - the two most important components of natural K. - and therefore not possessing the stimulating effect inherent in the latter on the central nervous system, K. surrogates have in common with natural K. only the ability to communicate to the prepared , after roasting them, the drinks have a certain smell, aroma and taste, at least vaguely reminiscent of K. - qualities with which an unpretentious poor person is completely satisfied in his everyday life. The widespread use of chicory and wine berries is also due to their ability, despite their cheapness and availability, to release into a hot solution a much larger amount of soluble and coloring substances (2½ times) than natural berries; The fame that acorn, barley and rye fruits enjoy among the public is explained by the special nutritional and dietary advantages attributed to them, although without any reason. From a hygienic point of view, of course, nothing can be objected to the use of various kinds of surrogates (with the exception, however, of K. from lupins, the prolonged use of which causes severe headaches), when they are sold at a cheap price and under their own name. Unfortunately, however, surrogates for K., as we will see below, are used mainly to falsify natural K., which is why acquaintance with their chemical composition, as well as, of course, with their histological structure, is interesting in itself, extremely It is important when identifying certain impurities in commercial burnt and ground K., passed off as natural. The table below shows the results of the analyzes performed by Dr. Kotsyn of both natural K. and, in comparison with it, some of the most commonly used surrogates: a sharp, as can be seen from the table, difference in the chemical composition between natural K. and the substances replacing it gives the opportunity, with the help of chemical examination (near microscopic) of a product suspected of falsification, to determine not only the nature of the impurities contained in it, but, in most cases, with greater or less accuracy, also their quantity.

Composition of natural coffee and pure surrogates.

Falsification of K. is already evident in relation to beans, both raw and fried, mainly, however, in relation to fried and ground K. sold in a completely ready-to-eat form. The more often practiced, relatively innocent, falsification in the sale of coffee beans consists in a mixture with expensive varieties of cheaper ones; further, in order to artificially increase the weight of the beans, which is beneficial for traders, the latter, during roasting, are often sprayed with Vaseline, treacle sugar or other low-value substances. In order to mask beans that are somehow spoiled and have lost their natural color and consistency, the latter are shaken with lead balls or tinted with dyes that are often harmful to health. Counterfeiters even put on sale artificial beans made from wheat, barley, bean and maize dough, from which, using special machines, they prepare grains that are carefully counterfeited to look like real ones. But more often and more variedly there is a counterfeit of burnt and ground K., in which, as we have already said, all kinds of surrogates are mixed, in fried and crushed form, differing little in appearance from the real K. From the research carried out by Dr. Kotsyn it is clear that Burnt and ground chicory sold in Moscow, often under fantastic names (“amateur chicory”, “economic”, etc.), almost always appears to be adulterated, mostly chicory and wine berries, with the admixture reaching 30-70%.

Microscopic examination gives very valuable indications in recognizing the purity of K. and the content of one or another admixture in it, which is why the histological picture of both K. and the surrogates most often mixed with it - chicory and wine berries - is given here in essential features. The parenchyma of the coffee bean consists of closely spaced, thick-walled cells without intercellular spaces, the colorless walls of which have very characteristic nodular thickenings; the shape of the cells is varied: rectangular, trapezoidal, rhombic, etc. — The seed coat covering the bean, already completely erased from the surface of the burnt bean, is well retained, however, in a groove located on the flat side of the bean, from where it penetrates deeply into the bean, covering the inner surface of the endosperm; its length is about 2 square meters. see why particles of this shell are always found in ground K.; Characteristic of it are the very long (0.2-0.7 mm), thick-walled, spindle-shaped or whetstone-like clerenchyma cells embedded in it, penetrated by wide pores. — Chicory is recognized by the milky vessels contained in the inner white bark and bordering it in the phloem , with a width of 0.006 to 0.01 mm, as well as thin-walled, bundled sieve tubes; in addition, short, moderately wide vascular cells embedded in the wood, the side walls of which are lined with transverse, mostly slit-like thickenings, stand out sharply under a microscope. — Wine berries are characterized by thin vascular bundles contained in the parenchyma of their meat and considerable width (0.05 mm, i.e. wider than that of chicory) milky vessels, with clearly visible walls; further, the upper skin contains small, polygonal thick-walled cells, in many places located in the form of a rosette around the hair pit, in which hair is sometimes preserved; As for the grains of wine berries, the seeds they contain are covered with a very hard and hard shell, in which large, rounded angular stony cells protrude, with a narrow lumen and layered walls, penetrated by numerous steam channels.

Literature, König, “Die menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel” (1893, Bd. II); J. Bell, "Die Analyse und Verfälschungen der Nahrungsmittel" (Bd. I); Dammer, “Illustriertes Lexikon der Verfä lschungen und Verunreinigungen der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel” (Lpts., 1887); "Vierteljahrschrift über die Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Nahrungs und Genussmittel" (1887, 1888, 1889); Trillich, "Die Kaffeesurrogate, ihre Zusammensetzung und Untersuchung" (Hygienische Tagesfragen, Munich, 1889); Kornauth, “Beitr ä ga zur chemischen und mikroskopischen Untersuchung des Kaffee und der Kaffee surrogate” (Munich, 1890); Gundrieser, “On a coffee surrogate prepared from blue lupine seeds” (“Pharmacist”, 1893); M ö eller, “Microsckopie der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel aus dem Pflanzenreiche” (1886); Nothnagel and Rosbach, “Guide to Pharmacology” (translation from German, 1885); Kotsyn, “On the adulteration of coffee in Moscow” (see II and III reports of the Moscow city sanitary station, edited by Prof. Erisman).

M. B. Kotsyn.

He or it

No matter how ordinary people argue, no matter how much the requirements of the Russian language are changed to please them. The rule remains the same.

The word form “coffee” is masculine. And this is the only correct option for literate speech.

How to do it right

In modern vernacular, this noun is very often pronounced in the neuter meaning. This should not be considered the norm. Most likely, this use is due to insufficient education.

Very meticulous lexicographers consider it correct to attribute the middle form to the name of the bush, from the grains of which drinks are prepared. For example, "coffee tree". If it is a drink brewed from grains, then the noun is masculine. For example, “strong coffee.”

What dictionaries say

In 1909, V. Dolopchev’s “An Experience of a Dictionary of Irregularities in Russian Colloquial Speech” was published, which states that “coffee” should be neuter, and the masculine gender is illiteracy. However, this point of view did not take root in educated circles: tradition turned out to be too strong.

Most modern reference books say that it is a masculine noun. However, despite all the indignation of grammar Nazis, some dictionaries write that “coffee” in colloquial speech canCoffee / Spelling academic resource “ACADEMOS” of the Institute of Russian Language. V. V. Vinogradov RAS to be neuter. That is, in a casual conversation this is no longer a mistake.

Many may be indignant: they say, modern philologists came up with all this, but earlier people were more literate, you won’t find such disgrace in old dictionaries. Well, Ushakov’s dictionary says Coffee / Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, ed. D.N. Ushakova is the same, and this is one of the oldest authoritative sources.

What kind of word is coffee?

Strong or strong coffee? Lovers of this drink often have doubts about what type of word coffee is and how to correctly use adjectives with it. Let's look into this issue.

How to use it correctly

As an indicator of correct, competent speech, the noun “coffee” in modern language is used in the masculine gender. The use of the neuter gender is considered erroneous, a manifestation of incorrect speech.

According to current rules, the word “coffee” must be agreed in official sources only in the masculine gender. For example, when applying a lexical unit to markings, labels, or on the menu of catering establishments.

Use the word “coffee” correctly in your speech. Remember that it refers to the masculine gender!

What will happen next

“Coffee” has “brothers” - words that were also once masculine, but due to their phonetic appearance they became neuter: “cocoa”, “piano”, “coat”, “metro”. Yes, “it’s time for me to drink my National Corpus of the Russian Language cocoa” from Turgenev, “our old National Corpus of the Russian Language piano” from Leskov, “he was wearing a light green coat” from Herzen - these are not the oddities of the classics. And once upon a time there was a newspaper “Soviet Metro”. However, native speakers rightly felt the neuter gender in these words.

"Coffee" strives for the same thing. Nowadays a lot of attention is being attracted to this word, and the use of the masculine form has become an indicator of literacy, which artificially restrains the natural change of gender. Most likely, it will still happen, but when depends on the activity of the purists. Today, in a conversational context, the neuter gender is acceptable, but in formal speech, masculine is still considered the only norm.