[Ads-l] Kibosh

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 14 13:52:55 UTC 2016


Let's call the whole thing off.

JL

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 7:05 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> I've heard mostly /k at baS'/ or /k at bOS'/ ("ka-BOSH"), and only rarely
> (IIRC) /kaj'baS/ or /kaj'bOS/ ("KYE-bosh") ... but I haven't heard "kibosh"
> spoken very often. My youth was wasted mostly in the Great Lakes area. A
> twenty-something Pittsburgh-originated informant reports similar experience
> with "kibosh".
>
> My MW3 shows both of these and my MW2 also shows both. My RHUD (1987, I
> think) also shows both. HDAS also shows both. I don't know why the recent
> MW item shows only "KYE-bosh".
>
> Online old Century Dictionary (supplement, 1909) shows "ka-BOSH" or so
> plus "kye-BOSH", but no "KYE-bosh" (incidentally this dictionary shows
> several distinctly different _definitions_ of "kibosh"). New Century
> Dictionary (1927 or so) shows only the "ka-BOSH" version.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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