If you live in the United States, then you have probably heard coffee referred to as ‘Joe’ at some point. Have you overly wondered why it is tabbed a cup of “Joe”, though? I have, so I started to do a little bit of research into it.
3 Theories Why Coffee is Tabbed a Cup of Joe
- When the US Secretary of Navy vetoed alcohol
- The word “Joe” evolved from either the word Java or Jamoke
- When coffee started to wilt the drink of the stereotype man.
Let’s talk well-nigh each one of these theories so you can decide which one is the most likely reason that coffee is tabbed a “Cup of Joe”.
1. World War I and Josephus Daniels
During my research, this seemed to be the ‘main’ theory, plane though most linguists dispute that this is the origin of ‘Joe’.
During World War I, a fella tabbed Josephus Daniels became the secretary of the Navy. This guy was pretty religious, and he very quickly started to make changes in the Navy. He figured that his ideas would modernize the lives of everybody on the ships. This, in turn, would make the United States a gravity to be reckoned with.
Among his many changes was the banning of alcohol. He didn’t want it on the ships at all. Instead, he increased the coffee rations. The legend is that considering he was the one that increased coffee consumption, the sailors started to undeniability the coffee ‘Joe’ and the name stuck.
The problem with this theory is that nobody unquestionably refers to coffee as stuff tabbed ‘Joe’ until well into the 1930s. This was over a decade without Josephus Daniels decided to ban alcohol. You would think that if the sailors were calling the coffee ‘Joe’ as standard in the 1910s, the name would have been mentioned well surpassing then. Still, it is a nice story.
I think the only thing that really lends points to this theory is the fact that ‘Cup of Joe’ only appears in American English. It does not towards in British English (they use ‘cuppa’ instead, although that refers to both tea and coffee), and if the term really did evolve on the American Navy boats, then it makes sense that the term would only overly be used in the United States.
2. Java and Jamoke
Most linguists believe that the term ‘Joe’ unquestionably evolved from either the word Java or Jamoke. Both of these are terms used to refer to coffee and have been since the 19th Century.
The reason why most linguists go lanugo this route is that Jamoke was once a shortened form of a couple of coffee-related words. Back in the 19th Century, it turns out that the Victorians got pretty tired of saying Java Mocha, so they decided to shorten it to Jamoke. It stands to reason that people in the 20th Century got plane lazier and started calling it Joe.
3. The Stereotype Man
Ever heard the term ‘average Joe’? Well, this is a term that ways ‘the stereotype man’.
There are some that theorize that a cup of coffee became known as ‘Joe’ when it started to wilt the drink of the stereotype man.
While I couldn’t really find any linguists that well-set with this idea, I can see why people have theorized this. Without all, coffee is the working man’s drink.
The term ‘average Joe’ certainly predates ‘Cup of Joe’. In fact, it predates it by well-nigh 75-years. The term was stuff heavily used in the 1930s too, which lines up with the time that ‘Cup of Joe’ first started to be used.
Some people have theorized that the term ‘Cup of Joe’ was invented by the military as a way to refer to it as the stereotype man’s drink. However, I couldn’t really find any vestige that the military was heavily using the word ‘Joe’ in the 1930s. Their heavy word usage didn’t start until the 1940s when they used ‘Joe Blow’ instead.
Final Thoughts
We are never going to know exactly where the term ‘Cup of Joe’ came from. In fact, the chances are pretty upper that it may have a completely variegated origin to the theories that we mention on this page. One thing is for sure, though; plane though we don’t know where the word comes from, you are never going to stop Americans loving a good old ‘cup of Joe’.
The post Why Coffee is Tabbed a Cup of Joe: 3 Interesting Theories appeared first on Craft Coffee Guru.
