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Zarf is an informal term for a sleeve, usually made of cardboard, to put on a hot paper cup, like you might get in a coffee shop. The zarf keeps you from burning your hand on the hot cup.

Originally a Levant term, a zarf is traditionally an ornamental metal holder for a coffee cup that doesn’t have a handle. Because coffee drinking became highly ritualized in the Mediterranean area, many��zarf��were decorated or designed very ornately and would often be expensive items only the rich could afford.

Example: The coffee shop didn’t give me a zarf this morning, and I really burnt my hands on the way to the car.

The first records of the term zarf in English come from around the 1830s. It comes from the Arabic term ẓa����, meaning “vessel” or “sheath.”

What are some other forms related to zarf?

• zurf (alternative spelling)

What are some words that often get used in discussing zarf?

• coffee
• cup
• cardboard
• holder
• metal
• ornamental

Uncommon in English, zarf is mostly used to describe the cardboard sleeves for paper hot cups.

My barista is telling me the cardboard thingy he's put around may take-away coffee cup is called a "zarf". 'Everyone knows that,' he says.

— Gyles Brandreth (@GylesB1)

I want to drink coffee from a diamond-encrusted cup. Never heard of a Zarf till I met this beauty.

— Marsha Bemko (@MarshaBemkoEP)

Just found out that the cardboard sleeve on a coffee cup is called a zarf

— Just Eat Ireland (@JustEatIE)

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Is zarf used correctly in the following sentence?

“Janette had a collection of silver zarfs but only one handleless mug to put in them.”