leut.

Uncertain. Cognate with West Flemish leute (“fun, pleasure, enjoyment”). The word may originally meant "deception," in which case it could be related to Frankish *leut (“deceptive, deceitful”). For the semantic development from "deception" to "fun, pleasure" compare also pret, which is related to words pertaining to deceit and boastfulness (English prat). The sense "coffee" (first attested 1897) is secondary to the sense "fun, pleasure" (first attested 1634). While some etymologists regard the -leut in words such as theeleut and koffieleut to be identical to this word, this is improbable for a number of reasons; more at Etymology 2 below and confer the cited references.

Sometimes related to Etymology 1 above, based on the fact that the compound koffieleut is exceedingly common, but the usage of leut, first attested in the mid-17th century in reference to drunkards (droncke-letten, droncke luijte) vastly predates the widespread usage of koffieleut (first attested 1897) specifically. (Note that these early forms of words pertaining to drinking diverge significantly from the early spellings of leut in the sense of "pleasure".) The origin of leut (also lutte in Flanders) in the sense of "frequent drinker of a certain beverage" is not entirely clear, but seems to be identical to Southern Dutch lut, lutte, both meaning "stupid or naive woman". Compare marginally attested Flemish compounds such as bierlutte, zattelutte, dronkelutte, jeneverlutte and so forth (more in source cited). Southern Dutch lutten (“to suck, to drink”) (cognate to German lutschen) has also been adduced in this context.