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The word ко́фе is attested as neuter from the 17th century and also as masculine from the 18th century; several alternative forms had been used, but they became obsolete over time. Ushakov's Dictionary (1935) labelled the word ко́фе as masculine and (colloquially) neuter; later Soviet dictionaries prescribed masculine as the only correct gender. The use of masculine is often explained by existence of obsolete forms ко́фей(kófej) and ко́фий(kófij), but in the 19th century masculine was often used besides neuter also for other indeclinable loanwords ending in -о, -е (such as пальто́(palʹtó), now neuter only). In practice, the word ко́фе was often informally treated as neuter: горя́чееко́фе ― gorjáčeje kófe ― hot coffee. In 1983, the Pronouncing Dictionary of the Russian Language (Орфоэпический словарь русского языка) edited by R. I. Avanesov labelled the word as masculine and (accepted) neuter. Current Russian dictionaries label the word as masculine and (colloquially) neuter; the usage of neuter, however, still remains controversial and is often regarded as uneducated.
Since the lack of declension may be inconvenient for some people, the diminutive forms of ко́фе, кофеёк(kofejók) or the dated form ко́фий(kófij), are occasionally used. Some ostensible case inflections are more common than others, e.g. the instrumental form ко́фем, but such inflected forms are non-standard and rarely used even in informal speech.
↑ 3.03.13.2Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “кофе”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 436
↑ 4.04.14.2Preobrazhensky, A. G. (1910–1949) “кофе”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка (in Russian), Moscow, Leningrad: G. Lissner & D. Sobko Publishing House, Academy of Sciences of the USSR
^ кофе in Большой толковый словарь, editor-in-chief С. А. Кузнецов – hosted at gramota.ru
Shyrokov, V. A., editor (2016), “кофе”, in Словник української мови: у 20 т. (in Ukrainian), volumes 7 (кварта́л – кя́хтинський), Kyiv: Ukrainian Lingua-Information Fund, →ISBN