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by banannie on February 9th, 2005

banannie

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Why do people call a cup of coffee a "cup of joe"?

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  • by SiN667 on February 9th, 2005

    SiN667

    Josephus Daniels (1862–1948) was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his numerous reforms of the Navy was the abolition of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard navy ships was coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as "a cup of Joe".

    Comments

    • Interesting

      Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony

      by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on February 9th, 2005

    • Cool!

      IAmDeath

      by IAmDeath on February 10th, 2005

    • this is a common story about "cup of Joe", however 2 etymologists on the web disagree. see my entry.

      Bibliophile_kg

      by Bibliophile_kg on February 12th, 2005

    • it is unuseful

      jana2005

      by jana2005 on February 14th, 2005

    • As a former member of the US Navy, I sense that this answer is the most logical of the bunch. As an enlisted man, I can say that there is a bit of animosity towards officers, and the thought of their "wine mess" being disabled would give the enlisted men a positive attitude towards Josephus Daniels. The sailors aboard the ships in the first World War could easily have been asking for a cup of Joe (with a "wink, wink" to each other). Many of these sailors were still in the Navy during WWII and were able to instill the term into hundreds of thousands new sailors who took it to the far corners of the US after the war.

      Chester

      by Chester on February 16th, 2008

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