Zarf Hot Drink Sleeves

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Lisa and I’m calling from San Antonio, Texas.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about zarf.

Zarf?

Zarf? What planet is that?

And I hope that I’m saying this word correctly because I only know it from crossword puzzles.

But in crossword puzzles, I’ve come across this word zarf.

And I think it means the kind of paper collar that you’d put around a coffee cup so that you don’t burn your hands on a hot drink.

And the reason I wanted to call is I’ve come across that word in other contexts.

But whenever I’m in a coffee shop, I’m just afraid to say it to the barista.

And I just say that kind of paper collar thing.

I don’t need it.

I don’t want one.

But I want to know a little bit about more, just this word,

And then maybe this kind of bigger question about why is it that we’re afraid sometimes to use, like, a more technical term,

And we just say, like, the paper collar thing.

Yeah.

Oh, that’s loaded with all good things to talk about.

Lots of juicy morsels in there.

Yeah, it sure is.

I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a coffee shop,

So I’m getting kind of nostalgic just hearing you talk about it, Lisa.

But I’m trying to think.

Yeah, I do remember stumbling over what to say.

I think I usually end up saying sleeve.

But I do know that word zarf.

Yeah, I know it too.

And zarf is how everyone in English says it.

It comes from Arabic.

And it refers to a larger cup or holder, often filigree or finely decorated, that holds a glass or ceramic cup of hot tea, which has its own name.

That glass or cup of hot tea is called a figan or finjan.

And so, yeah, we just borrowed it straight from Arabic to refer to these rather ordinary sleeves or holders for hot drinks.

But you raise a great question.

If you know a particular technical word for something and you suspect that the person you’re talking to doesn’t know that word, you know, you kind of trip up.

Right, Lisa?

Yeah, that’s exactly it.

So I could imagine, right, if I was a surgical nurse in an that, you know, you’d really want to get all of the technical lingo right.

And I think, you know, like a barista might know this, right?

There’s probably a lot of, we use a lot of other technical words in coffee shops, right?

Macchiato and half-calf.

And it’s actually a really technical space.

But for some reason, like this word, we just don’t really have a good name for it.

Yeah.

I wonder if it’s because we know in our hearts that it’s not fully ankylcized.

And so it’s a bit of a catch-22.

We worry that we won’t be understood.

Therefore, we don’t use it.

And because not a lot of people use it, it’s not widely understood.

Exactly. Exactly.

I think if you Google zarf, you will find that it’s one of those words that is often shared as a,

Wow, did you know?

I think the word is getting out there and that you can be on the forefront of people who share this word

And be the one who teaches people who don’t know.

And I think most coffee shop workers who’ve worked there will know.

They will have learned the language.

You think?

Yeah, I do.

Hand me the zarf?

Yeah, I think they’ll know zarf.

You know what’s discordant for me, though, Lisa, is that zarfs, if you Google zarfs, they are elegant, beautiful things usually.

The original ones in the Middle Eastern culture.

And I’m not sure that the cheap cardboard things from the coffee shop are even worthy of the name zarf.

Because they’re cleverly constructed, but they’re not particularly elegant.

Yeah, you know, I’ve eaten in like Moroccan restaurants and I know exactly the kind of beautiful metal, like ornate it, like it brings a level of ceremony to a beverage.

And surely that little paper thing at a coffee shop doesn’t.

But it is sort of a troubling thing of like, like what kind of look would I get?

Or, you know, am I just going to have to end up feeling kind of confused and pretentious in a coffee shop?

I liked your comparison to the medical field.

Martha, if you and I are talking about linguistics, what do we do?

We use the linguistics terms.

But if we’re talking to a listener, we might not know if they know the linguistics terms.

So we might explain it, something in plainer words and not use the formal language for it.

And I think that’s what’s happening here.

If you are an insider, you’ll use the insider language.

If you’re not, you won’t.

It’s hard to know who the insiders are.

Yeah.

And I guess this is maybe my bigger question.

Sometimes a technical word helps you be understood more quickly and clearly in some contexts.

And in other contexts, it actually just causes more confusion.

And it’s better to say paper sleeve thingy.

But once you do a little field work, try zarf in your next coffee shop encounter, say

Maybe the next 10, and see how many people don’t blink an eye at it.

See what happens.

I absolutely will.

Take care and be well, all right?

Thank you so much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.