[Ads-l] "Kibosh" (tangential)

[Andy Bach]

This came from Oxford Press's list
https://blog.oup.com/2018/10/etymology-gleanings-for-october-2018/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=oupblog

Surprisingly, the[Hebrew/Yiddish?] verb *kybosh* came also to mean “to make
an object perfect.” Yet this development may not be unnatural. *To kybosh*
meant “to put an end to something, to finish,” and *finish* is a
double-edged word (compare *something lacks finish*, among others).

The three authors treat with suspicion the statement of an old
correspondent to *Notes and* *Queries* that among architects *to kybosh*
meant “to throw with blowpipe and brush dark dust into the deep recesses of
carved stonework”

On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 12:16 AM Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> I'll need at least a day or two to compose my responses in the current
> "kibosh" discussion. Meanwhile ....
>
> I note that David L. Gold, publisher of a relevant paper in 2011, was
> quoted on-line in mid 2016:
>
> ----------
>
> “I no longer suggest that the clogmakers’ term may be the etymon of
> kibosh as in put the kibosh on (rather, the latter kibosh is probably
> the etymon of the former kibosh) or that the word kibosh may have a
> slight Jewish connection.
>
> “Now, I find evidence for a different suggestion, not original with me
> and not involving any Jewish language or Jews, which I will present in
> an expanded version of the article published in 2011. ...."
>
> ----------
>
> I am not acquainted with David Gold myself. Does anyone on this list
> know what his new 'different suggestion' might be? Can he be e-mailed?
> Has the 'expanded version' of his article appeared? (I have read his
> 2011 article, which is available on-line.)
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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