Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Brewed coffee.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Portuguese and Brazilian gold coin, worth from eight to nine dollars.
  • noun A master; a superior.
  • noun A sweetheart; a darling.
  • noun A fourpenny-piece. Also joey.
  • noun [capitalized] An old jest: same as Joe Miller.
  • noun A lobster too small to be sold legally—that is, one under ten inches in length.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun See johannes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A male; a guy; a fellow.
  • noun informal Coffee.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for (old black) joe, military slang for coffee, from the title of a song by Stephen Foster.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the proper name Joe

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A proposed etymology is as follows: 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". However, further investigation by others at snopes.com showed that the name appeared before the general order by the Navy to ban the wine mess.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word joe.

Examples

  • UnMicD: As another poster noted, "+" has special meaning: it and everything after it up to the @, of course is ignored in determining the actual addressee. joe@, joe+a@, joe+cnjxcvnjsjvsvjs@ all go to joe.

    Google Doesn’t Require You To Login With Dots | Lifehacker Australia 2010

  • guyz2 let joe decide himself who he wants to go out with its not us who tell him 2 go out with this girl or that girl..its all up to joe,,btw..joe make more songs..i like ur song When u lo0k me in the eyes,,btw thnx

    Joe Jonas Hospitalized; Joe Jonas Head Injury Rushed To Hospital 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    Waldo's Virginia Political Blogroll 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    Waldo's Virginia Political Blogroll 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    The Daily Whackjob Whackjob 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    The Daily Whackjob 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    The Daily Whackjob 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    Waldo's Virginia Political Blogroll 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    The Daily Whackjob 2008

  • We will be in NOVA this weekend ... as soon as Aimee gets a ride from Blacksburg. woohoo redskins touchdown!!! apparently, some people find the term joe six pack offensive. what elitists.

    Waldo's Virginia Political Blogroll 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • An appaloosa horse named Joe was the mount of The Virginian played by James Drury on the TV series The Virginian. Some people have heard this as "Jody" but Drury is on record as saying the horse was named Joe. More than one appaloosa horse played this part.

    February 1, 2008

  • "Haul Away Joe" is a pretty famous sea shanty.

    February 9, 2008

  • Hey Joe by the Leaves, Love, Jimi Hendrix, and just about everyone else.

    February 9, 2008

  • Also a shortened version of johannes (as in the coin). Usage on mohur.

    March 16, 2008

  • Citation on doubloon (in the sense of a type of coin).

    July 29, 2008

  • What the heck is going on here? You almost made me spill my joe! - Third Rock From The Sun

    March 12, 2009