chafé

Blend of chá (“tea”) +‎ café (“coffee”). First attested in the 1950s.

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Hyphenation: cha‧fé

chafé m (countable and uncountable, plural chafés) (Brazil, colloquial)

1. (uncountable) weak, watered-down coffee
   • 1950 April 30, “Instantaneos”, in Correio Paulistano, volume XCVI, number 28852, São Paulo, page 23:

     O marido, com a mania reclamante que o carateriza, mesmo quando ha gente de fora, implica: — Que café ralo!; mais parece “chafé”. […]

     The husband, with the peevish nature that characterizes him, even when there are people from outside, whines: “What a watery coffee! It’s closer to tea.” […]

   • 1958 June 6, Gil Rodrigues Junior, “Café no exterior: café versus “chafé” [Coffee abroad: coffee versus “coffee tea”]”, in A Tribuna, volume LXV, number 61, Santos, page 13:

     Para isto, basta que os americanos preparem com menos água a sua bebida predileta, isto é, que deixem de beber café fraco, aguado, “chá de café” — chafé — e procurem ingerir o verdadeiro e bom café.

     For this, Americans need only prepare their favorite drink with less water, that is, stop drinking weak, watered-down coffee, “coffee tea” — chafé — and seek to ingest only the real, good coffee.

   • 1961 September 7, “Não Morra Pela Bôca”, in Última Hora, volume XI, number 3437, Rio de Janeiro, page 8:

     […] o tipo do americano que não gosta do “chafé” servido em sua terra, mas também não gosta da “infusão de pau prêto” que comumente se serve em nossa curiosa terrinha...

     […] the type of American who doesn’t enjoy the weak coffee served in his land, but also doesn’t like the “dark-stick brew” that is commonly served in our curious little land...

   • 1977, Gilberto Gil, “Sandra”, in Refavela, Phonogram:

     Salete fez chafé, que é um chá de café que eu gosto / E naquela semana tomar chafé foi um vício

     Salete made weak coffee, which is a tea made of coffee that I like / And that week drinking weak coffee was addictive

   • 1994 August 13, José Clemente Pozenato, “Inocente [Naïve]”, in Pioneiro, volume 46, number 5828, Caxias do Sul, page 40:

     Meio litro de “chafé” só é mais ruim, mas não tem menos substância do que cinco cafezinhos fortes, ou “stretti”, como dizem os italianos. Mera questão de hábito.

     Half a liter of watered-down coffee is just more bad, but has no less of the substance [caffeine] than five strong coffees, or “stretti”, as the Italians say. Simply a matter of getting used to it.

2. (countable) a serving of weak coffee

chafé

1. first-person singular preterite indicative of chafar