How about a cup of JOE?

[ltfire]

Who is JOE, and what’s he got to do with coffee?

[Inigo_Montoya]

Joltin’ Joe Demaggio? Mr. Coffee?
WAG.

[twickster]

According to the Random House unabridged, it dates back to the 1840s: “origin unknown.”

Some weird twisting of “java” perhaps?

[Inigo_Montoya]

Flog Me.

Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as “a cup of Joe”.

[twickster]

Fine – unless RH is correct about it dating back before the Civil War.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I get some very conflicting information when I search. But I gotta go with the “jamoke” origin.

Online Etymology Dictionary

joe
“coffee,” 1941, of unknown origin. Meaning “generic fellow, man” is from 1846, from the pet-form of Joseph (q.v.). Joe college “typical college man” is from 1932. Joe Blow “average fellow” is U.S. military slang, first recorded 1941.

World Wide Words

We wish we knew for certain. The absence of any clear origin for the use of joe to mean coffee has, as usual, led to stories being created to explain where it came from.

A persistent one alleges that it derives from the ban imposed by Admiral Josephus “Joe” Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, on serving alcohol aboard US Navy ships, except on very special occasions. Coffee, it is said, became the beverage of choice and started to be called Joe in reference to him. The problem with this story is the dates. Cup of joe appears in the written record in 1930 but the order to ban alcohol—General Order 99—was issued on 1 June 1914. It banned officers’ wine messes, which had only been permitted since 1893; ships had otherwise been dry since the spirit ration was abolished in 1862. It seems hardly likely that the loss of a wine mess limited to officers on board otherwise alcohol-free ships would have led to a nickname for coffee that only started to be written down 16 years after the order.

Professor Jonathan Lighter, in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, leans towards another story: that it came from the Stephen Foster song Old Black Joe, with the resultant mental link between black and coffee. It is true that the song—written in 1860—was extremely popular at one time, but it makes no reference to coffee, so linking the two is implausible.

The most boring, but most probable, suggestion is that it is a modification of java or jamoke for coffee, perhaps under the influence of one or other of the many expressions at the time that contained the word Joe—for example, “an ordinary Joe” (though “GI Joe” for an enlisted man in the US military is from the next decade). It is significant that an early example appears in 1931 in the Reserve Officer’s Manual by a man named Erdman: “Jamoke, Java, Joe. Coffee. Derived from the words Java and Mocha, where originally the best coffee came from”.

Maven’s Word fo the Day

How American coffee came to be called joe is not well documented, but the leading theory connects it to the once-popular song Old Black Joe written by Stephen Collins Foster (author of Oh! Susannah and Camptown Races) in 1860. The name joe appears to have been primarily used in the military, and particularly the navy, during the first half of the twentieth century. The slang was popular enough to be included in the Reserve Officer’s Manual of 1931 along with java (named after the coffee bean) and jamoke (a combination of the words java and mocha, pronounced ja-moh-kee). Bayler & Carnes commented on the military’s devotion to its joe in 1943: “Coffee is the marine’s best friend and the Corps might well adopt the good old “joe-pot” for its emblem” (Wake I.).

WordWizard

A CUP OF JOE (joe is not capitalized) is a cup of coffee and the official word on ‘joe’ (also ‘j.o.) is that it first appeared in print in 1930 although according to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Slang,’ its origin is unknown. However, Flexner in his ‘Dictionary of American Slang’ says: “it apparently derives from the ‘j’ of Java or the ‘j’ and ‘o’ of ‘jamoke.’” ‘The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang’ says that perhaps ‘joe,’ which is especially used in the Navy, derived from the Stephen Foster song ‘Old Black Joe’(1860) [i.e. as in black coffee]. <1930 ‘Tramp and Underworld Slang’ by Irwin, page 110: ‘Joe’—coffee>

P.S. Java is the main island of Indonesia from which Javan coffee (introduced there by the Dutch in the 17th century) came and from which the slang word for coffee ‘java’ (1907) derives. ‘Jamoca’ (1910-15), which is also slang for coffee is probably from JA(va) + MOCHA, respelled. And ‘mocha’ (1765-75) was a choice variety of coffee, originally from Mocha, Arabia, which was the seaport near which the coffee was originally grown and from which it was originally exported.

[h.sapiens]

World Wide Words has this explanation. He rejects the Josephus Daniels story, and another linking it to the song “Old Black Joe”, and thinks it most likely comes from “java” or “jamoke”.

[h.sapiens]

:smack: Too slow!

[samclem]

When you go looking for the origins of words, you first need to find out if Barry Popik has found the earliest use of the term. (The link to Barry’s site doesn’t contain info on joe=coffee, but it shows how hard he works to find words, especially about NYC and food items. An interesting read.)
And, from a posting over at the American Dialect Society, from 9 June 2004–

Summary–Barry found a cartoon from 1911.

First frame, Osgar to Adolf: 'Diss moosik box shoult make you der orders plain, Adolf. For instance ven id plays “Old Black Joe” id
means coffee mitoudt cream.

While this doesn’t mean that “joe=black coffee” came from the song, it does predate Admiral Josephus Daniels.

[AHunter3]

Actually JOE (in ALL CAPS as specified) is a text editor.

It's an acronym.  It stands for JOE's Own Editor.
   The word JOE in that phrase is an acronym.  It stands for JOE's Own Editor.
       The word JOE in that phrase is an acronym.  It stands for JOE's Own Editor.
           The word JOE in that phrase is an acronym.  It...well, you get the idea...

I prefer NEdit myself.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@samclem

Summary–Barry found a cartoon from 1911.

While this doesn’t mean that “joe=black coffee” came from the song, it does predate Admiral Josephus Daniels.

Nice find, Barry.

But while this obviously strengthens the Old Black Joe link, it doesn’t explain why the song has that title.

The 1860 date on the song and the 1846 cite of “joe” as a regular person do make an interesting combination, though.

[Derleth]

@AHunter3

I prefer NEdit myself.

Bah. Real Programmers use Emacs, and Real Programmers can make Emacs run like any other editor on Earth.

[Atticus_Finch]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, “jo”, “joe” and “joey” were units of currency, with values ranging from a couple of pennies to a couple of pounds. The name apparently comes from the Portuguese coin called the “Joannes” or “Johannes”, at least in the case of the unit worth some pounds.

If we’re talking about a unit worth only a few pennies, perhaps this came to be applied to a cup of coffee, which would be worth around that. This is all a guess, but it seems as likely as any other scenario.

[Nametag]

You’ve mentioned all but one of Heinlein’s five grades of coffee: “Coffee, java, jamoke, joe, and carbon remover.”

[AskNott]

I’m gettin’ outa here before I get caught in the repetitiontiontiontiontiontiontiontiontiontiontiontiontion.

Oh, no :eek: