Missed-point dept. (origin of "Joe" (coffee)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Jerry, for the hat trick: antedating, etymology, and origin in
short-order lingo - all in one cite!  (With bonus refutation of an original
connection with Josephus Daniels!)

JL

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Missed-point dept. (origin of "Joe" (coffee)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just a thought -- could "Joe" be influenced by "Java", which seems to be an
> older term. "A cup of Java" goes back to the 19th C.
> DanG
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 12:33 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Missed-point dept. (origin of "Joe" (coffee)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It's not 1911, but Tea and Coffee Trade Journal (1945) has a description:
> > "Silex is popular Joe pot". I won't bother you with unshortened links
> since
> > I am at a borrowed computer at the moment, without my usual settings.
> There
> > are a couple of other hits for "Joe pot" (among 145 raw), including 1980
> > William Manchester's Goodbye, Darkness, and a handful from 1946-9
> > (includin=
> > g
> > one that GB incorrectly tags as 1932), then a few more in the 1950s. The
> > term has been recently resurrected in novels and memoirs--at least,
> > according to GB. There is an apparently early citation (1943) in The Last
> > Man on Wake Island, if the publication date is correct. A couple of
> sources
> > suggest that "Joe pot" was not just a coffee pot or "coffee urn", but
> also
> > =
> > a
> > coffee mug or cup, but that seems unlikely. A late Partridge edition
> cites
> > Manchester in identifying the source of expression as US sailors in the
> > Korean War, but that's much too late--it was certainly in use in the
> > Pacifi=
> > c
> > by the middle of WWII to the point of being "beloved" and "ubiquitous",
> > wit=
> > h
> > citations identifying sailors, marines, pilots, radio men. There is a GB
> > hi=
> > t
> > for Kendall's Dictionary of Service Slang (1944), but no preview.
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:20 AM, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Here=C4=85s an earlier one:
> > >
> > > 1911 =C2=AD =C5=9AOsgar and Adolf=C4=85 cartoon by Condo; title:
> > =C5=9AEv=
> > ery Little Melody Has
> > > Meaning of It=C4=85s [apostrophe: sic] Own=C4=85; _The Tacoma Times_,
> > Feb=
> > . 27, 1911,
> > > p. 4; [misspellings below: sic]
> > > First frame, Osgar to Adolf: =C5=82Diss moosik box shoult make you der
> > or=
> > ders
> > > plain, Adolf.  For instance, ven id plays =C5=82Old Black Joe=CB=9B id
> > me=
> > ans coffee
> > > mitoudt cream.  .=CB=9B
> > >
> > > This is mentioned in the book I co-authored with Barry Popik and David
> > > Shulman _Origin of the Term =C5=82Hot Dog=CB=9B_, 2004. P. 105.
> > >
> > > Gerald Cohen
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org