I recently got into an awkward situation when I wasn't able to ask for a 'warmth protector thingy' in Starbucks, and wasn't accurately able to describe it, so could someone tell me what you would call the brown paper thing covering the plastic cup of coffee? I struggle to find it anywhere because it's hard to describe, hence why the title is badly phrased.
edit: would zarf be socially acceptable to use in a casual environment?
Learn English – the brown cardboard covering coffee cups called in English
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Best Answer
I've certainly heard these corrugated cup-coverings casually called coffee condoms by college kids around campus (with the occasional “ribbed for her pleasure” snickers).
As might be expected of a coinage like this, Urban Dictionary offers the most baldfaced definition of this bit of street slang:
Java Jacket
Smithsonian Magazine from 2013-08-13 had an article on “How the Coffee Cup Sleeve Was Invented” containing a more detailed history of this device, including this small bit:
Sorensen ended up patenting his Java Jacket idea, and he sells a billion (B-I-L-L-I-O-N) of these a year. But the one you get at Starbucks is ever so lightly different enough that they got their own patent after Sorenson got his. An earlier patent for such a device was granted back in 1964:
And there have been many others besides that one. The Smithsonian article also mentions one called a portable coaster back in 1947.