köken: From Arabic يَاسِر عَرَفَات (yāsir ʕarafāt, “Yasser Arafat, a 20th century Palestinian leader”) + sjaal (“scarf”). Arafat very regularly wore a keffiyeh in his public appearances.
Borrowed from Arabic كُوفِيَّة (kūfiyya), in accordance with the German DMG transcription, while the form Keffije represents the vulgar transcription of the earlier 20th century, and Keffiye probably follows English keffiyeh, keffiye.