[Ads-l] "cup of joe" (1928)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
> Two texts [both at GB] that might possibly be relevant, even if not necessarily
> of great help:
>
> 1927  Feb. 18 (though GB says 1926) Princeton Alumni Weekly v. XXVII n. 19
> p. 564 col. 2-3
> "Speaking of Restaurateur Joe, that gentleman recently advertised that he had
> a brand of coffee, one cup of which would keep an exam-harrassed student
> awake all night. Dean Gauss commented on this with characteristic wit in the
> next day's Princetonian. He suggested that each morning throughout the
> academic year "a full cup of Joe's waking potion be administered 'to every
> undergraduate in good standing.' The Dean, no doubt, has some morning
> lectures."

This one was also recently discovered by Bill Rabara, who has
suggested it's the origin of "joe" = 'coffee':

https://plus.google.com/116787953580208997251/posts/VKYRjC4udXz

(It was this suggestion that got me looking for other early cites.)

I don't think the Princetonian's "full cup of Joe's waking potion" is
anything more than coincidental. Here's another red herring, involving
a different coffee-brewing Joe from New Jersey:

Jersey Journal (Jersey City, NJ), Dec. 4, 1914, p. 8, col. 1 [GenealogyBank]
"Cop's Coffee Did the Trick: Stranger Who Wanted to Sober Up Landed a
Cup of Joe Martin's Brew"

(Patrolman Joseph Martin was head cook of the Seventh Street police
station in Jersey City.)


> 1921 Aug 18. Life p. 20 col. 2
> "Officers will personally serve coffee to men of their divisions in thin china
> cups, preferably Jamocha blend with fresh cream and lump sugar. Officers
> will take particular pains not to startle men in waking them."
> This (headline "Daily Routine Aboard a Soviet-Run Battleship") is from a
> jokey reaction to order of the Secretary of the Navy, Edwin Denby--who
> succeeded Josephus Daniels--ordering that "soviet rule" practices (on which cf.
> NYT 23 June 1921) cease.

> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society ... on behalf of Ben Zimmer ...
> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 2:10 AM
> To: ...
> Subject: [ADS-L] "cup of joe" (1928)
>
> HDAS has "joe" = 'coffee' from 1930, in Godfrey Irwin's _American
> Tramp and Underworld Slang_, but several early cites are from Navy and
> Marine sources. The following bit of verse indicates that "cup of Joe"
> was already in use among Marines in 1928.
>
> This is still much later than the 1911 evidence discovered by Barry
> Popik that "Old Black Joe" could mean 'coffee without cream' in hash
> house lingo:
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2004-June/038726.html
>
> ----
> "Marines in Nicaragua Gluttons for Punishment"
> _Riverside (Calif.) Daily Press_, Oct. 31, 1928, p. 6, col. 3 [GenealogyBank]
> Frank J. Hicks, whose parents reside at 324 Eucalyptus avenue, this
> city, and who is with the U.S.S. New Mexico's detachment of marines,
> now stationed in Chinendega, Nicaragua, gives his version of a
> marine's experiences in the southern republic in the following lines,
> headed, "Leather Necks in Nicaragua":
> "I will print you a few lines
> To let you in on the news.
> Far from the seashores of Nicaragua,
> Into the jungles we go,
> Wading the mud and cursing our luck,
> Wishing to God it would snow.
> We stop wet with sweat
> And wring out our shirts,
> Throw off our packs
> And sleep in the dirt.
> Can't go to sleep
> Because the mosquitoes bite.
> We have to let them
> Because we are too tired to fight.
> Wake up in the morning
> To drink a cup of Joe,
> Throw on our packs
> For the same old go.
> Wade mud to our knees,
> Sometimes to the neck;
> Makes you think of your home
> In the U.S., by heck!
> Welcome to a place
> About forty feet square;
> The boys stretch their necks
> And come up for air.
> The skipper says, 'Boys,
> Put up the camp'
> And we all got sick
> Because the ground was damp.
> I will put out the lights
> And call it the end.
> If you don't believe this story,
> Try and make Bend."
> ----

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