Talk:kibosh

Yiddish (< Hebrew) origin

From [1] "Looks Yiddish, but origin in early 19c. English slang seems to argue against this." Beware when taking into account the proposed Hebrew origin.--Rfsmit 00:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

OED online states "Origin obscure.(It has been stated to be Yiddish or Anglo-Hebraic: see N. & Q. 9th ser. VII. 10.)". That's the only etymology given. (On a personal note, I've only heard this term used by my Jewish family and friends.)--69.141.150.161 07:09, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

World Wide Words

Some interesting details here for possible discussion. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 09:00, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Sweeny Todd

I moved the following quotation out of the entry as it isn't a good use, or even a use of this spelling, and its etymological suggestions are bunk and only likely to confuse users. - -sche (discuss) 02:33, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

"Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", written by George Dibden Pitt in 1842 for the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, at Act 3, Scene 2:
JARVIS WILLIAMS (to the Keepers of a madhouse at Peckham): "Stand off you cowardly rascals, or I'll put the 'kiebosh' on the whole consarn."
JONAS: "The 'kiebosh'?"
JARVIS WILLIAMS: "Yes, it's a word of Greek extraction, signifying the upset of the apple-cart - so - bunk!" JONAS: "Bunk?" JARVIS WILLIAMS: "Yes, that's another Greek word, and means G.O., go."

Kibosh Update #4 Comments on Etymology, May 2019: Kibosh(Compilation)

Also by G. Cohen, S. Goranson, and M. Little, an update to their book Origin of Kibosh hereCoralapus (talk) 11:32, 4 January 2020 (UTC)Coralapus Oxford English Dictionary online entry on Kibosh, noun, was revised in Dec. 2019. The Etymology section mentions three proposals: 1. From Arabic or Turkish, 2. from Irish, 3. from Yiddish or Hebrew. Coralapus (talk) 12:02, 4 January 2020 (UTC)Coralapus

Dickens

The relevant Dickens quote is:

‘What do you mean by hussies?’ interrupts a champion of the other party, who has evinced a strong inclination throughout to get up a branch fight on her own account (‘Hooroar,’ ejaculates a pot-boy in parenthesis, ‘put the kye-bosk on her, Mary!’), ‘What do you mean by hussies?’ reiterates the champion.

- in the 'Seven Dials' scene in 'Sketches By Boz' (1836)

Liberman on kurbash

In Etymology gleanings for November 2017, Liberman comments on the kurbash book:

Do I believe that the riddle has been solved? Have the authors put the kibosh on the old crux, or has the solution they proposed joined the ghosts of the years past? "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show," says Dickens in the preface to David Copperfield. The same holds for the derivation of kibosh from kurbash. I did not raise the immortal ghost in vain. For a long time, the earliest author who used kibosh (spelled kibosk) in print was Dickens. Attacks and counterattacks on the monograph will probably follow. The disagreement won’t diminish its value.

That is somewhat cryptic. The answer to David Copperfield's question was (spoiler alert) no, the hero[ine] was not David Copperfield but rather Agnes Wickfield; I'm not sure how that maps to the question of whether Liberman believes the riddle has been solved. "Raising the ghost" is another allusion to A Christmas Carol but not otherwise relevant as far as I can see. Jnestorius (talk) 17:30, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Message from Wiktionary:Feedback

The following has been copied from Wiktionary:Feedback at @S. Valkemirer's request.

This article, by far the first of any length and depth on the word, clears away much misunderstanding about its genesis and later history:

Gold, David L. 2011. “After at least 138 years of discussion, the etymological puzzle is possibly solved: the originally British English Informalism kibosh, as in “put the kibosh on [something]” could come from the clogmakers' term kybosh 'iron bar which, when hot, is used to soften and smooth leather' (with possible reinforcement from Western Ashkenazic British English khay bash 'eighteen pence').” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses. No. 24. Pp. 73-129 [2].S. Valkemirer (talk) 16:48, 31 March 2022 (UTC)
- excarnateSojourner (talk | contrib) 19:23, 10 April 2022 (UTC)

In the course of updating this entry for WOTD, I have come across a 2019 paper stating that Gold has now resiled from his earlier views (expressed in David L. Gold (2011) “After at Least 138 Years of Discussion, the Etymological Puzzle is Possibly Solved: The Originally British English Informalism Kibosh, as in ‘Put the Kibosh on [Something]’ could Come from the Clogmakers’ Term Kybosh ‘Iron Bar which, when Hot, is Used to Soften and Smooth Leather’ (with Possible Reinforcement from Western Ashkenazic British English Khay Bash ‘Eighteen Pence’)”, in Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses [Alicante Journal of English Studies]‎^[3], volume 24, Alicante, Spain: Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Universidad de Alicante [Department of English Philology, University of Alicante, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 99–102). — Sgconlaw (talk) 17:16, 1 February 2023 (UTC)