What does "kopi" mean?

A variety of gypsum found in southern Australia, sometimes containing opal, and traditionally used by Indigenous Australian in powdered form as body ornamentation for mourning ceremonies.

Kopi

//ˈkəʊpi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A variety of gypsum found in southern Australia, sometimes containing opal, and traditionally used by Indigenous Australian in powdered form as body ornamentation for mourning ceremonies. Australia, uncountable
""In these parts you find kopi, gypsum I think you call it, and you see it in layers exposed on the sides of certain hills.""
2
Coffee as it is traditionally prepared and served in Maritime Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, uncountable

Example

More examples

""In these parts you find kopi, gypsum I think you call it, and you see it in layers exposed on the sides of certain hills.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Baagandji kopi, gabi.

Etymology 2

From Malay kopi (“coffee”), from Dutch koffie with further influence of English coffee. Compare Hokkien 咖啡 (ko-pi / ko-phi), Teochew 咖啡 (go¹ bi⁵ / gu¹ bi⁵), Cantonese 咖啡 (go³ bi¹).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.