Talk:josh

Etymology

Funk & Wagnells' (1962) desk dictionary gives the origin of "josh" as being a blend of "joke" + "bosh". I'm not certain this is 100% accurate but I thought I'd share it here before adding it to the article itself. Thoughts?—Strabismus 23:43, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

I doubt it. Dictionaries are almost unanimous in reporting the origin lost or uncertain. It seems to have appeared in the mid-19th century, possibly as a reference to a stereotypical person (short for Joshua), and entered general use shortly thereafter due to the immense popularity of humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw, who wrote under the pseudonym Josh Billings. Would that we could ask Mr. Shaw where he got the name... ~ Ningauble 18:16, 14 March 2010 (UTC)