بُنّ

بُنّ (noun)

Etymology: Borrowed from Classical Syriac ܒܽܘܢܳܐ (būnā), which, attested as “barley soaked in water”, underwent a meaning development in 14ᵗʰ-century Yemen due to brewages of sundry appetizing beverages, less likely in view of the pungent fish-sauce بُنّ (bunn), but from the picture of barley grains to the coffee bean in particular. Compare meaning transferrals in the spice-names قِزْح (qizḥ) and بِسْبَاس (bisbās), and خَنْدَرِيس (ḵandarīs, “spelt; gruel”) to “wine”, as قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”) originally meant “wine”. This specific meaning strain—it was only generalized in Ethiopia to mean the berry, powder and decoct of coffee too—is confirmed by Ancient Greek βύνη (búnē, “malt”), a borrowing found in Late Antiquity’s Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis and Aëtius of Amida. The further origin can be a technical term restricted from the well-known Middle Iranian word for “base, grounds” found as Classical Persian بن (bun) and Old Armenian բուն (bun), also borrowed directly from Iranian in Omani Arabic بون (būn), compare the Iranianism reflected in Arabic دُرْدِيّ (durdiyy, “lees, amurca”).

Meaning: coffee beans, coffee; coffee tree; a fine strong fragrance

From Wiktionary: بن, by Wiktionary contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.