putting kibosh questions

[Stephen Goranson]

As you know, on the etymology of kibosh there is no consensus. And kibosh evidently gained additional senses over the years.
Kibosh is known in English from at least 1834, often in "put the kibosh on." Another possibly early use (unconfirmed newspaperarchive preview--could Sam Clements or another confirm this?)):
True Sun [London] May 15, 1835 "They say so to rise [raise?] the kibosh against me, and my wife."
In Notes & Queries (1948 p.3460) "cosh" meaning "stick" is listed among chimney-sweep slang; that word is also spelled 'kosh" (Rom or Turkish). A stick, nightstick, life-preserver, seemed a plausible fit, except for a problem getting from kosh to kibosh, an unlikely infix.There is, however, another named stick or whip known to British colonialists.
For example in Sultan to Sultan: Adventures among the Masai and other Tribes of East Africa by M. French-Sheldon (London,1892) page 200:
"Witnessing the event, Hamidi's _kibosh_ (rhinoceros-hide stick) went whistling through the air as he impulsively plunged through the stream to chastise the frightened _askari_."
1892 might seem a bit late; but there are related earlier mentions in England, and text with both kibosh and the stick or whip mentioned.).
The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica (15: 949):
KURBASH, or KOURBASH (from the Arabic qurbash, a whip; Turkish qirbach; and French courbache), a whip or strap about a yard in length, made of the hide of the hippopotamus or rhinoceros. It is an instrument of torture used in various Mahommedan countries, especially in the Turkish empire. "Government by kurbash" denotes the oppression of a people by the constant abuse of the kurbash....

Once I found this link, I was surprised it had not--to my knowledge-- been suggested as the etymology before. Has it been? Is this etymology plausible?

Stephen Goranson
http:///www.duke.edu/~goranson

ps. According to The Age, 18 Jan 1835  [unconfirmed]:
'The Late First Lord of the Admiralty [perhaps Sir James Graham] puts what Bill Ingilby calls "The kibosh" upon the Whigites....'
It might be of interest if we could learn of Ingilby's travels.

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