# weak coffee



## DBlomgren

Hello all, 

I've discovered that people around the world have different ways of referring to weak coffee. Could you list your way with a translation in English?

To start off, my Texan cousin used the term "*cricket pee*" but I'm not sure if that's widespread.

In the French/English forum, they listed _*jus de chaussette*_ - sock water.

I'm looking for terms just for weak coffee, not bad coffee.


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## Teachinglang

In Dutch, you can say *slootwater* - water from the ditch (ditch as in a trench next to a field used for water drainage).


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## apmoy70

In Greek it's usually called *«νερουλός»* [neɾuˈlos] (masc. because coffee is a masc. noun) --> _watery_.
Also (a bit more offensive) *«κατρουλιό»* [katruˈʎo] (neut.) --> _pee-like_ (the latter is used also for beer).

Some etymology
-MoGr adj. *«νερουλός, - λή, -λό»* [neɾuˈlos] (neut.), [neɾuˈli] (fem.), [neɾuˈlo] (neut.) --> _watery_ < Late ByzGr & MoGr word for _water_, *«νερό(ν)» neró(n)* (neut.) + MoGr productive adjectival suffix that denotes _resemblance, likeness _*«-ουλός»* [-uˈlos] < ByzGr neut. suffix *«-ούλιν» -oúlin* < Classical Gr neut. dimin. suffix *«-ύλλιον» -úlliŏn*.
MoGr neut. *«νερό» *[neˈɾo] < ByzGr nominalised adj. *«νεαρόν» nearón* (neut.) --> _young, fresh_ which used to modify the neut. noun *«ὕδωρ» húdōr* --> _water_ and within time undergone nominalization, and thus replaced the noun: *«Ὕδωρ νεαρόν»* --> _fresh water_ > *«νεαρόν»* > *«νε(α)ρό(ν)»*.

-MoGr noun *«κατουρλιό»* [katurˈʎo] (neut.) & *«κατρουλιό»* [katruˈʎo] (neut.) with metathesis --> _piss, pee, piss-like_, slangy for ByGr & MoGr colloquialism *«κάτουρο(ν)» kátouro(n)* (neut.) --> _piss, pee, piddle_ < compound; Classical prefix, preposition, and adverb *«κατά» katá*, and *«κάτα» kátă* --> _downwards, against, along, through, over, across, concerning_ (PIE *km̥t- _down, with, along_ cf Hitt. -katta (postpos.), _along, with_) + Classical neut. noun *«οὖρον» oûrŏn* (mostly found in pl. *«οὖρα» oûră*) --> _urine_ (PIE *ue̪rs- _to urinate_ cf Skt. वर्षति (várs̥ati), _to rain, shower down_, Av. varəšta- _to rain upon_).


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## 810senior

In Japanese weak coffee is called American Coffee(アメリカンコーヒー) for some reason.


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## KalAlbè

In Brazil, I've heard chafé. chá(tea) + café(coffee)


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## Armas

Finnish:

_litku
liru_, related to _lirua_ "to trickle"

Both can be said of any weak beverage not only coffee.


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## Stan Jan

It's interesting to read the Finnish examples, because in Polish it's *lura*. (feminine noun)




* BTW, we also have the opposite (for strong tea or strong cofee), "siekiera" (literally: "axe, hatchet")


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## DaylightDelight

810senior said:


> In Japanese weak coffee is called American Coffee(アメリカンコーヒー) for some reason.


I've once read a story that the American started to prefer coffee over tea after the Boston Tea Party, and as a substitute for tea they started to brew weak coffee.  Apparently the former half is true but the latter half is just an urban myth.


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## 810senior

@DaylightDelight, good to know it. I guess that we might have some language that also contains _American Coffee_ in the sense of _Weak Coffee_ like Japanese ever does, for example, something like *French *fries or Going _Dutch_.


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## jazyk

Besides chafé, above, I've also heard água de batata (potato water) in Brazil.


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## Armas

Stan Jan said:


> It's interesting to read the Finnish examples, because in Polish it's *lura*. (feminine noun)



Do you mean _lura_ too is related to the Polish verb for "trickle" or that it only sounds somewhat similar to the Finnish word _liru_?


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## Stan Jan

Armas said:


> Do you mean _lura_ too is related to the Polish verb for "trickle" or that it only sounds somewhat similar to the Finnish word _liru_?



It's just a word for "a weak coffee". I never knew where it came from. Wikisource suggests Germanic or Latin origins. In Poznan it's used more often and for more diluted stuff.


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## AutumnOwl

Swedish:
Kaffeblask - Coffee + faded,  watery


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## ger4

Armas said:


> _liru_, related to _lirua_ "to trickle"
> 
> Both can be said of any weak beverage not only coffee.





Stan Jan said:


> It's interesting to read the Finnish examples, because in Polish it's *lura*. (feminine noun)


German _Plörre_ can also be used to describe weak coffee or any weak beverage (implied: it's not very tasty). It is thought to be derived either from an old French word for 'tear' (_pleur_ ?) or from the Low German verb _plör(r)en_, 'to weep'; 'to spill a fluid' (which might be a French loanword, in which case the two theories don't contradict each other...)


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## Armas

Holger2014 said:


> German _Plörre_ can also be used to describe weak coffee or any weak beverage (implied: it's not very tasty). It is thought to be derived either from an old French word for 'tear' (_pleur_ ?) or from the Low German verb _plör(r)en_, 'to weep'; 'to spill a fluid' (which might be a French loanword, in which case the two theories don't contradict each other...)



That's interesting. Finnish _plörö_ is a hot drink made out of coffee and strong alcohol.


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## elroy

Palestinian Arabic: قهوة خفيفة (2ahwe khafiife), literally "light coffee"


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## ilocas2

Czech:

*čurifinda
špína* (= dirt)

I don't drink coffee and I had to ask some people who drink coffee for knowing that.


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## DBlomgren

Thank you all for your translations! Quite illuminating - American coffee and ditch water. I've drunk Swedish and Tanzanian coffee. They were both so strong that I had to drink 1/3 coffee, 1/3 hot water, and 1/3 milk. _Les goûts et les couleurs... _but that's a topic for another thread.


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## ThomasK

In Dutch (Belgian Dutch?) it could also be "*slappe koffie*". You could translate that as "weak" but I'd prefer "feeble" or something because "slap" refers to _people_ missing energy in general - though _slap_ may also be positive in my dialect and mean: "having a flexible body" or something ("lenig" in good Dutch, maybe something like '"supple").


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## Penyafort

Catalan: *aigüeroles *'puddle waters'

Spanish: *aguachirle *'bland water'

Not only for coffee but also for any drinkable substance weaker than expected.

Often, as in English _dishwater_, *agua de fregar* (Spanish) / *aigüa de fregar *(Catalan) is used.


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## Frieder

There are more words in *German *for week coffee:

_Blümchenkaffe_: (lit.: little flowers coffe) – in former times they often had cups with flower decor on them. So if you can see the little flower on the ground of the cup through the coffe then it is obviously quite week.
_
Bodenseekaffe_: (lit.: Lake Constance coffee) – this is a pun on the homophony of "Bodensee" (Lake Constance) and "Boden seh" (see the ground, same as in the example above).
_
Spülwasser_: dishwater.

_Lorke_: this is a dialect expression which cannot be translated.


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## Encolpius

DBlomgren said:


> To start off, my Texan cousin used the term "*cricket pee*" but I'm not sure if that's widespread.
> In the French/English forum, they listed _*jus de chaussette*_ - sock water.
> I'm looking for terms just for weak coffee, *not bad coffee.*



I can hardly imagine if you call something pee or sock water is not bad.


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## mataripis

Any drinks with weak flavor in Tagalog is called Matabang or Matab- ang. Weak coffee is Kapeng Matabang.


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## DBlomgren

Encolpius said:


> I can hardly imagine if you call something pee or sock water [it] is not bad.


True, Encolpius, but bad coffee could have a variety of problems, not just being weak.


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## DBlomgren

mataripis said:


> Any drinks with weak flavor in Tagalog is called Matabang or Matab- ang. Weak coffee is Kapeng Matabang.


And what does _matabang_ translate to?


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## fdb

In the Yemen (until fairly recently the biggest coffee producer in the world) the coffee “beans” (actually the dried seeds of coffee berries) were down for export, and the local population had to make do with “qishr” (“husk”), an insipid brew made from the dried husks of the coffee berries. I think something similar happened in Brazil.


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## AutumnOwl

Encolpius said:


> I can hardly imagine if you call something pee or sock water is not bad.


Coffee doesn't have to be weak to be bad, a too strong coffee can be said to be like tar (kaffet liknar tjära).


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## Encolpius

AutumnOwl said:


> Coffee doesn't have to be weak to be bad, a too strong coffee can be said to be like tar (kaffet liknar tjära).



Of course, but then why do they call it cricket pee? Does that word make you feel it is a *good* week coffee?


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