### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 9, 1999, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/1 "1999-05-09T22:23:00Z")
Since only the planet’s smartest people hang out at this site, let me put forth a question put to me by someone else:
Why exactly was a cup of coffee called a “Cup Of Joe”?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 9, 1999, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/2 "1999-05-09T23:31:00Z")
Cause a ‘joe’ is your best friend. IE:
joe "jo\ noun often cap [fr. Joe, nickname for Joseph] (1846)
: fellow, guy \
©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 10, 1999, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/3 "1999-05-10T01:21:00Z")
I remember reading somewhere that cuppa joe came from cuppa java–a common word for coffee for a long time, since the best came from Java.
Supposedly GIs in WWII somehow corrupted ‘java’ to ‘joe.’
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 11, 1999, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/4 "1999-05-11T03:31:00Z")
There’s a legend out there that goes as follows:
The U.S. Navy used to serve alcoholic beverages on board ships. However, when Admiral Josephus “Joe” Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations, he outlawed alcohol onboard ships, except for very special occasions. Coffee then became the beverage of choice, hence the term “Cup of Joe.”
I do not vouch for the accuracy of this story, which sounds a bit fishy to me.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 11, 1999, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/5 "1999-05-11T04:16:00Z")
Big Iron–I agree with your skepticism, but come to think of it, I think that was one of the etymologies I read about. So could be.
English be strange, esp American.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 11, 1999, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/6 "1999-05-11T12:53:00Z")
Big Iron is pretty close to the case. Coffee in the naval service,including the Marines ,has been 'Joe’since the thirties.
I say this because I was one of them during the “Big Deuce”.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 11, 1999, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/7 "1999-05-11T12:54:00Z")
Big Iron is pretty close to the case. Coffee in the naval service,including the Marines ,has been 'Joe’since the thirties.
I say this because I was one of them during the “Big Deuce”.
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### Author:  [@dragonfly98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonfly98)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/8 "2000-03-18T21:10:00Z")
Yeah. But which one is it. Cuppa Joe or Cup of Joe? I like the generic term Java myself.
* * *
“What’s right is only half of what’s wrong and
I want a short-haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long.”
George Harrison - _Old Brown Shoe_
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### Author:  [@InutilisVisEst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InutilisVisEst)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/9 "2000-03-18T21:32:00Z")
Big Iron’s dead on, according to this neat page.
* * *
Sure, I’m all for moderation – as long as it’s not excessive.
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### Author:  [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/10 "2000-03-19T16:24:00Z")
Oh fer cryin’ out loud!
uh corse it’s cuppa-----mebbe in offsers country it’s ‘cup of’,but for’rd of the hawsepipe it’s cuppa!
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/11 "2000-03-19T21:16:00Z")
Fer cryin’ out loud, yerself. When was the last time you got served in the forepeak? I seen gobs go _up_ the hawsepipe. I never seen an’body stay _for’rd_ o’ it.
😉
* * *
Tom~
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### Author:  [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cup-of-joe/8852/12 "2000-03-20T17:00:00Z")
Mebbe that’s why they say of one who moves into officers country from the forepeak
" He moved aft through the hawsepipe"
AS to your question------55 years ago
OUT