1614: joe, Cup of | May 16, 2019

The origin of 'joe' as 'coffee' is unclear, but there are a number of quite wide-ranging theories. On one end, some believe it comes from the name of an American coffee merchant at the turn of the last century, Joseph Martinson, and on the other end, some believe it is an alteration of the Indonesian island 'Java'. Neither make total sense chronologically and otherwise, and the former was no doubt influenced by advertising, but there is an explanation to bridge the gap. 'Joe' used to be the term for a Portuguese coin from the name of the king of Portugal in the 1770's, so given Portuguese control of what is now Indonesia, Brazil, and other coffee-growing areas, this could be a source on its own or in conjunction with another.
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