zarf
/zɑɹf/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An ornamental container designed to hold a coffee cup or teacup and insulate it from the hand of the drinker.
Example Sentences
- "In presenting the coffee, the servant holds the foot of the zarf with his thumb and first finger. In receiving the fingán and zarf, he makes use of both hands, place the left beneath and the right above at the same instant."
- "Cenk Girginol, a Turkish coffee consultant and author of the book Coffee: From the Soil to the Cup, says zarfs began to be used at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th century. […] By the 19th century, goldsmiths in Geneva were making zarfs to export, according to the Khalili Collections. Recent auctions and museum collections show zarfs that were made in France, Syria, Iran and Switzerland. A zarf in the Louvre's collection, covered in emeralds and diamonds, was owned by Abdul Hamid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s."
Etymology
Likely borrowed from Ottoman Turkish ظَرْف (zarf), ultimately from Arabic ظَرْف (ẓarf). Also influenced by Classical Persian ظَرْف (zarf) and Hindustani (Hindi ज़र्फ़ (zarf) / Urdu ظَرْف (zarf)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ظَرْف, ज़र्फ़, ظ ر ف
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /zɑɹf/
- British English: /zɑːf/