• The term “㗝呸店” originated from the Hokkien term kopi tiam, meaning “coffee shop”. Kopi comes from the Malay word for coffee, kopi, while tiam means “shop” in Hokkien. In the early days, most kopitiam owners were Hainanese or Foochow.
• Frequented by locals, these eateries mainly serve traditional Nanyang coffee, tea, kaya toast, as well as affordable local dishes.

In the days of black-and-white photography, coffee shops were also known as “kopitiams”, “tea rooms” or “drinking rooms”. To attract customers, couplets like “More seats upstairs, cosy rooms for tête-à-têtes” were engraved on the pillars in front of the building. (Lianhe Zaobao, 12/4/2019)

• In Singapore English, these establishments are also known as “coffeeshops” or “eating houses”.
• Kopitiams were originally modest in size, but recent years have seen the mushrooming of large-scale kopitiams operated by corporations, in which stalls are rented out to individual stallholders to provide a wider range of local dishes.