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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 Benjamin Buchholz on March 24th, 2005

    Benjamin Buchholz

    In volume I, chapter xvi of Dickens' Great Expectations, the following is written: "When, at last, she came round so far as to be helped down stairs, it was still necessary to keep my slate always by her, that she might indicate in writing what she could not indicate in speech. As she was (very bad handwriting apart) a more than indifferent speller, and as Joe was a more than indifferent reader, extraordinary complications arose between them, which I was always called in to solve. The administration of mutton instead of medicine, the substitution of Tea for Joe, and the baker for bacon, were among the mildest of my own mistakes."

    While perhaps not the true origin of the expression, this phrase at least predates the other explanations here and would give whomever first applied the phrase something of an intellectual underpinning.

    www.benjaminbuchholz.com

    Comments

    • I'm afraid you may have misunderstood that passage. Joe is the name of Pip's brother-in-law. By "the substitution of tea for Joe", it means Joe took tea instead of medicine as Pip took mutton instead of medicine. It does not mean the substitution of coffee for tea.

      If you are implying that the widespread use of the slang term "joe" instead of coffee was adopted simply because Joe took tea instead of medicine in this novel, I believe that to be quite a stretch of the imagination and highly unlikely.

      I think the most likely source of this term came from the combination of the word java and mocha as another poster suggested.

      teal

      by teal on July 2nd, 2007

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