joe

See also: Joe, Joe., and joë

English

Pronunciation

enPR: jō
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒəʊ/
- (General American) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒoʊ/
Homophones: Jo, Joe, Zhou
Rhymes: -əʊ

Etymology 1

From the proper name Joe.

Noun

joe (plural joes)

(informal) A male; a guy; a fellow.
I'm just an ordinary joe.
(UK, slang) A spy, especially a double agent.
- 2001, Tod Hoffman, Le Carré's Landscape, page 193:
  Name me a joe in a bad country ... who doesn't fall for a pretty face if she's on his side against the world.
- 2004, Richard W. Cutler, Counterspy, page 96:
  Soviet troops were permitted to enter the American sector, where they could easily capture and torture an agent to confirm the existence of a Joe house, then cripple American espionage efforts by kidnapping a nest of spies in one fell swoop.
- 2009, John Fleming, Stoppard's Theatre: Finding Order amid Chaos, page 178:
  Then Hapgood turned him into a joe — that is, he works for the British.
- 2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 215:
  Lamb didn't look any different, was still a soft fat rude bastard, still dressed like he'd been thrown through a charity shop window, but Jesus, River thought—Lamb was a joe.
(historical) Synonym of johannes (“An old Portuguese gold coin bearing a figure of John V of Portugal.”)
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter XCIX. The Doubloon”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 481:
  I have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings; your doubloons of old Spain, your doubloons of Peru, your doubloons of Chili, your doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan; with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and quarter joes.
- 1861, “United States Mint”, “Chapter I. Establishment of Mint—Standard of Coins—Laws Regulating Coinage—Progress of Coinage—Precious Metals in the Country”, in Eighty Years’ Progress of the United States: […], volume I, New York: […]. Worcester, Mass.: L. Stebbins, page 213, column 1:
  Guineas, joes, half joes, doubloons, and pistoles of various origin constituted the gold currency, while the silver was mostly the Spanish American dollar and its fractions: the half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth, with the pistareen and half pistareen.
- 1863 August, The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, volume VII, number 8, New York: Charles B. Richardson, […]. London: Trübner & Co., page 245, column 2:
  In the olden time the currency, you know, was a l^[sic] in gold and silver, joes, half-joes (Johannes), pistoles, moidores, doubloons, pistareens, ninepences (12+¹⁄₂ cents), and fourpence-half-pennies (6+¹⁄₄ cents) or “fippenny-bits.”

Alternative forms

Joe

Derived terms

Translations

stereotypical male given name — see Joe

Etymology 2

Uncertain. See cup of joe for more.

Noun

joe (countable and uncountable, plural joes)

(chiefly US, informal) Coffee.
- 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135:
  45 have some joe Week's almost over—now bring it home. Austrian researchers found that a cup of java resulted in a 45-minute boost of brain activity in the regions responsible for attention, concentration, and short-term memory.
- 2010, Melody Carlson, A Mile in My Flip-Flops, page 221:
  Some people say I make the best joe in town. But you know there's a kiosk over on Eighteenth Avenue, not that far from here.

Related terms

cup of joe

Translations

coffee

German: Kaffee (de) m

Etymology 3

Noun

joe (plural joes)

(Scotland) Alternative form of jo (“a darling or sweetheart”)
- 1836 Joanna Baillie The Phantom, Act 2. Provost, to a maidservant.
  I fear, my joe, the good that I can do him,
  Or ev'n the minister, if he were here,
  Would be but little.

Dalmatian

Alternative forms

ioe

Pronoun

joe f (plural jai)

(third-person feminine singular pronoun, oblique case) her

Related terms

jala
joi (masculine)
jai

Dutch

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Interjection

joe

(colloquial) bye
Joe! - Bye!

Norman

Alternative forms

jaue, jouoe

Etymology

Inherited from Old French joe, from Vulgar Latin *gauta. Compare French joue.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈʒo], [ˈʒow]
IPA^(key): [ˈʒu] (borrowed from French?)

Noun

joe f (plural joes)

cheek

References

ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[1] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 724: “joue” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
Delesques, Henri (1887) “joe”, in Dictionnaire de patois normand: […] (in French), page 374
Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*gaba”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 4: G H I, page 5

Old French

Alternative forms

jode, joude (archaic or orthographically archaizing)
joue, jouue, jowe, jouwe (forms reflecting introduction of antihiatic /w/, raising of /ɔ/ to /u/, or both)
goe, goue⁠, gouhe⁠, gowe (⟨g⟩ either genuine northern /ɡ/ or Anglo-Norman graphy for /d͡ʒ/)
⁠joewe⁠, jewe⁠, ⁠joie⁠, ⁠joye⁠, ⁠yoe⁠, ⁠giue⁠ (unusual; some forms may reflect [ɔw]~[ɔj] interchange; ⟨y⟩ prob. alt. graphy for /d͡ʒ/)

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *gauta. Attested from ca. 1100 onwards.

Pronunciation

(archaic) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɔðə/
(classical) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɔə/
(late) IPA^(key): /ˈʒuə/

(central pronunciations)

Noun

joe oblique singular, f (oblique plural joes, nominative singular joe, nominative plural joes)

cheek
jaw

Descendants

French: joue
Norman: joe, jaue, jouoe
Walloon: gawe
→ Middle English: joue, goue, jovwe, jowwe, jaue, jeaue, geoue
- English: jaw

References

“joe”, in DEAF: Dictionnaire Étymologique de l'Ancien Français, Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1968-.
jowe on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
Pope, Mildred Katherine (1934) From Latin to French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman, Manchester: Manchester University Press, page 210
Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*gaba”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 4: G H I, page 5

Sranan Tongo

Pronoun

joe

Superseded spelling of yu.