keffiyeh

English

A man wearing a red and white keffiyeh.

Alternative forms

• kaffiyah, kuffiyeh, kufiya, kufiyah, kufiyya

Etymology

From Arabic كُوفِيَّة (kūfiyya). Doublet of kofia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈfiː(j)ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• enPR: kə'fi-ə

Noun

keffiyeh (plural keffiyehs)

1. A headdress traditionally worn by some Arabs, also used as a scarf.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:shemagh

   • 2015, Joe Sacco, Palestine, Fantagraphics, →ISBN, page 31:

     This guy's already awake! And chipper! He wraps on a keffiyeh!

   • 2024 November 9, Maya Yang, “Anti-Trump protests erupt across US from New York City to Seattle”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Speaking to a crowd of demonstrators, some of whom dressed in raincoats while others wore keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s deadly war on Gaza, one demonstrator said: “Any president that has come to power has also let workers down.”

Translations

Arabian headdress

• Arabic: كُوفِيَّة f (kūfiyya), شُمَاغ f (šumāḡ), غُتْرَة (ar) f (ḡutra), حَطَّة f (ḥaṭṭa), مَشَدَة f (mašada)
• Czech: kefíja f, palestina f, šemag m
• Dutch: arafatsjaal (nl) m, Palestijnensjaal m
• French: keffieh (fr) m, kéfié (fr) m
• German: Kufija f, Kufiya f, Kefije f, Kefiye f, Palästinensertuch n, Palituch n (colloquial), Pali (de) n (colloquial)
• Hebrew: כאפיה \ כָּפִיָּה (he) f (kafíya)
• Italian: kefiah (it) f, kefiyyah f
• Kazakh: куфия (kufiä)
• Kyrgyz: куфия (ky) (kufiya)
• Persian: چفیه (čafiye), دستمال یزدی (dastmâl yazdi)
• Polish: kefija (pl) f, arafatka (pl) f
• Russian: куфи́я (ru) f (kufíja)
• Spanish: kufiya f, palestina (es) f, pañuelo palestino m
• Swedish: palestinasjal (sv) c, keffiyeh c
• Ukrainian: ку́фія f (kúfija)

Further reading

• keffiyeh on Wikipedia.Wikipedia