covfefe

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm

Proto-Italic *kom

Old Latin com

Latin cum

Latin con-

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-?

Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi

Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Latin operiō

Latin cooperiō

Old French covrirbor.

Middle English coveren

English cover

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Proto-Italic *-kos

Latin -cus

Latin -icus

Latin -āticus

Latin -āticum

Old French -agebor.

Middle English -age

English -age

English coverage

English covfefe

From a 31 May 2017 tweet by Donald Trump: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”, presumably intending to write coverage. Donald Trump later tweeted: “Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ???  Enjoy!”. Sense 1 ("deliberate misspelling of coffee") is from the phonetic similarity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koʊˈfɛfi/, /kəvˈfeɪfeɪ/, /koʊˈfɛfeɪ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

covfefe (uncountable)

2. (humorous) Deliberate misspelling of coffee.
   • 2017, Carter, Powered by Covfefe: Writing Journal‎^[3], CreateSpace, →ISBN:

     A covfefe journal! Write your deep thoughts in this journal while drinking covfefe.

   • 2017, Denis Leary, Why We Don’t Suck and How All of Us Need to Stop Being Such Partisan Little Bitches, New York, N.Y.: Crown Archetype, →ISBN, front flap:

     IN AN AMERICA so gluten-free that a box of jelly donuts is now a bigger threat than Vladimir Putin, where college kids are more afraid of Ann Coulter than HIV, it’s time for someone to stand up and make us all smell the covfefe.

   • 2017, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski, Dan Schreiber, The Book of the Year: The Weirder Side of 2017, London: Random House Books, →ISBN, page 57:

     On 31 May, we all woke up and smelled the Covfefe.

   • 2017, P. W. Longhammer, I Like My Women Like I Like My Covfefe‎^[4], Amazon Digital Services LLC, →ISBN
   • 2018 January 19, Alek Korab, “Welcome to Metro.us”, in Alek Korab, editor, Metro New York, New York, N.Y., page 2, column 3:

     Everyone has a vote, and votes matter. Next election, use yours. Now get a cup of covfefe and dive in.

   • 2018 November 22, Ricki Lewis, “The Coffee-Genes Story Brews Discontent on Thanksgiving”, in DNA Science (PLOS Blogs)‎^[5], archived from the original on 2020-08-08:

     Drilling down into the details of the report, rather than just cutting and pasting from a news release, reveals an increase in covfefe consumption range from .02 to .15 UK cups per day among the genetically enhanced like myself.

   • 2019, “Contents”, in Victoria McCollum, editor, Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror and the Politics of Fear (The Cultural Politics of Media and Popular Culture), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

     Now you’re in the sunken place … with a damn fine cup of “covfefe”: the dangers of nostalgia and the darkness of future past in the age of Trump

   • 2019, Smelling the Covfefe [pseudonym], “Q.7 Media Mess”, in Tiffany Jones, Leanne Coll, Lisa van Leent, Yvette Taylor, editors, Uplifting Gender and Sexuality Education Research (Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education), Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, →ISSN, pages 273–274:

     How do I know whether a reporter or media outlet (proposing to interview me on G&S topics) genuinely supports my work or is setting me up for negative press? Smelling the Covfefe, USA.

   • 2019, Stewart Lee, “It will take more than ceramics and cheese to unite our divided country”, in March of the Lemmings: Brexit in Print and Performance 2016–2019, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, part I (Brexit in Print 2016–2019):

     Wake up and smell the covfefe and tell the spinning corpse of Robin Day the news.

   • 2019 January 9, Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert, “Official 'Anthem' Merchandise Revealed From Numskull”, in ComicBook.com‎^[6], Pop Culture Media, Paramount Global, archived from the original on 2019-01-10:

     Whether you're addicted to a hot cup of covfefe like I am, or wanting to rep that Anthem hype with pride atop your head, the new line is off to a strong start with apparel, a coffee mug, and a commemorative keychain.

   • 2020, Caroline Fredrickson, “Introduction”, in The AOC Way: The Secrets of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Success, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

     Soon after she started in Congress, Devil’s Due, a comic book publisher, announced its latest product: […] Grab a hamberder and cup of covfefe and prepare to enjoy this read!

   • 2022 August 19, “Headlines”, in Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Mich., →ISSN, page 9A:

     Not ‘covfefe’: Successor to Starbucks opens in Russia

   • [2024 April 7, Hilary Koch, “On David Hasselhoff and the healing power of laughter”, in Central Maine Sunday (Morning Sentinel), volume 7, number 14, Waterville, Me., page A7, column 5:

     But the best was years ago, when I hacked my husband’s phone and programmed it to replace his commonly used words with some absurd phrases from our former president. For example, “coffee” became “covfefe,” “cool” turned into “bigly,” and “Hannaford” transformed into “Build a wall!”]

4. (humorous, rare) A notional representation of the success, discourse or ideas of Donald Trump.
   • 2017, Nathaniel Schmeling, Timing the Infinite‎^[7], →ISBN:

     Go ahead, read on to humankind’s honest truth, the coinciding dominion where mansplaining reality confronts feminazi theory. A covfefe amphitheater revealing women not as chattel to be bought and sold.

   • 2018, Joe Dunn, “The Fecal Fiend”, in A Man-Child Covefe! (The Tremendous Trump), San Antonio, Tex.: Antarctic Press:

     THEN A LITTLE SPRINKLE OF COVFEFE DUST. NOT EVEN TRUMP KNOW WHAT IN IT. […] AHHHH… TREMENDOUS TRUMP ALWAYS SAVE THE DAY.

   • 2018, Najah Mahir, “Preface”, in The Ransom that Lies Demand: We the People and “Covfefe”, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Co, →ISBN, pages xv and xx:

     President Trump, I was not being delusional in calling him by the name in which he tweets out insults through a covfefe movement, as you will come to learn towards the end the use of this word, which no reasonable language can justify its meaning except to take each letter apart and turn them into our present indwelling shame that this president has brought upon the United States of America. […] For now, we look for truth, hope, and light, or some form of hope within these truths, and not covfefe, which is here taunting us to stay silent until calamity becomes America’s portion.

   • 2020, Kurt Schlichter, The 21 Biggest Lies about Donald Trump (and You!)‎^[8], Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, →ISBN:

     But he [Mike Pence]’s no Trump in any sense. […] The base respects Pence and his loyal service, but he just does not have the covfefe that the base needs and wants in 2024.

   • 2020, Simon Lindgren, Data Theory: Interpretive Sociology and Computational Methods‎^[9], Polity Press, →ISBN:

     Covfefe, construed as a disruptive space, is a form of noise – a disturbance in the orderly sequence. […] So, even if much of the covfefe may appear as random ramblings, the disturbance as such still has political consequences and effects. The noise generated through covfefe becomes a crack in the dominant discourse, a crack that can be deepened through continued work.

   • 2021 February 22, Katie Rogers, “Did Washington Just Have an Actual Weekend?”, in The New York Times‎^[10], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-02-22:

     In the meantime, a battered and bruised capital has adjusted to life at a calmer pace, with quieter activities and words replacing the obscenities, characters and gibberish that used to shape how the [Trump] days were spent. Bagels over Bannon. Grandchildren over golf. Church over covfefe.

   • 2023 September 28, David Lubin, “[Your letters] The magic man”, in Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla., page 20A, column 1:

     He states he can design a better fighter jet than the military. Really? Maybe with a bit of magical covfefe.

Derived terms

• COVFEFE Act (Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act)

 

See also

• cofeoffee (unrelated similar-sounding word)
• hamberder (another misspelling by Donald Trump)

 

Further reading

• covfefe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia