jamokejamoke

The story

Appeared at the end of the 19th century as a term for coffee, a blend of java + mocha. By the 1920s or 1940s jamoke was also attested in the sense of "fool, idiot", perhaps suggesting they lacked mental abilities beyond that of a cup of coffee, or perhaps an unrelated word; the first syllable is reminiscent of jaboney, jiboney, and the second syllable is reminiscent of moke. Also spelled jamook, giamoke, and giamope, the term as used for an idiot has also been suggested to derive from a dialectal Italian (Neapolitan or Sicilian) word giamope. This dialect has produced other words with elided final vowels in American and Australian diaspora speech, such as gabagool.