kibosh (2. Nonsense. Antedating 1860)

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jul 2 04:05:41 UTC 2010


One of the definitions of kibosh is nonsense; humbug. The first
citation given now is 1869 or 1873. Further below is a cite dated
1860.

(OED 1989) kibosh, n. slang 2. Nonsense, ‘rot’, stuff, humbug.
1873 Slang Dict. s.v., ‘It's all kibosh’, i.e. palaver or nonsense.

(HDAS Vol II) kibosh n 2. Nonsense; humbug; BOSH; usu. In phr. put the
kibosh on  to fool or hood wink.
1873 Hotten Slang Dict. (ed. 4) …

Michael Quinion's excellent discussion of kibosh says:
… the modern form appeared first in The Slang Dictionary in 1869.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/kibosh.htm

I did not see mentioned in the archives that the 1860 second edition
of Hotten's Slang Dictionary is now in Google Books and it includes
kibosh.

1860, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words by A London
Antiquary, Second Edition, John Camden Hotten, London.

KIBOSH, nonsense, stuff, humbug; "it's all KIBOSH," i.e., palaver
or nonsense; "to put on the KIBOSH," to run down, slander,
degrade, &c. — See BOSH.

http://books.google.com/books?id=62mRnTQxTbMC&q=kibosh#v=snippet&


Google Books also has an edition of Hotten's dated 1859, but I was
unable to find the word kibosh in this edition.

1859, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words by A London
Antiquary, John Camden Hotten, London.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Zhk9h-w1negC&q=cartzo#v=snippet&

Garson

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