[Ads-l] antedating of kibosh, put the kibosh on - 1834

[Ben Zimmer]

I also discussed the 1830 and 1834 cites in my Dec. 29, 2017 Wall Street
Journal column about the Cohen, Goranson and Little monograph.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/putting-the-kibosh-on-an-old-riddle-the-source-of-the-phrase-1514564107?st=x6WHAP&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 7:21 AM Stephen Goranson <
0000179d4093b2d6-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> These are discussed in
>
> Origin of Kibosh: Routledge Studies in Etymology
>
> Gerald Leonard Cohen;  Stephen Goranson;  Matthew Little
>
> 2018, ©2018
> English  Book viii, 161 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
> ISBN: 9781138628953 1138628956
>
> sg
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Sent: Friday, July 4, 2025 6:26 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: antedating of kibosh, put the kibosh on - 1834
>
>
> There's also a c. 1830 instance (the date is uncertain) in a broadsheet
> poem:
>
> "There is one little dodge that I am thinking,
> That would put your profession all to smash,
> It would put on the kibosh like winking,
> That is if they was to introduce the lash."
>
> For my discussion of this and the 1834/35 citations see
> https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/kibosh
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Peter Reitan" <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Friday, July 4, 2025 12:58am
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] antedating of kibosh, put the kibosh on - 1834
>
>
>
> As I understand it, the OED has "put the kibosh on" from Dickens, Seven
> Dials, in a collection published in 1836.
>
> Dave Wilton posted here August 7, 2024, an antedating of the same Dickens
> usage, in Scenes and Characters. - No. 1. Seven Dials, published in Bells
> Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 27 September 1835, 1/1. Dave Wilton
> reported that in this publication, it is spelled "kye-bosh," not the
> "kye-bosk" that appears in later editions.
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2024-August/165781.html
>
> Newspapers.com has several earlier uses spelled in the more familiar
> "kibosh," the earliest from November 27, 1834, which appears in
> near-identical reprints, with some differences, in several newspapers over
> the following days and weeks. A second example appears on January 23, 1835,
> and a third in May 1835. The two early examples refer negatively to Whig
> politics. In the November 1834 example, the person using the word is an
> uneducated chimney sweep, whose words are reproduced in some dialect,
> Cockney? The January 1835 example mentions someone named Bill Ingilby as
> the person from whom they heard the expression. The May 1835 example
> appears in a police report of violence among members of a synagogue. The
> testimony of the complainant is written in dialect, German-Yiddish accent?
>
> It's not clear whether these examples shed any additional light on its
> etymology or history of use, although the May 1835 example refers to being
> given a beating by a crowd giving the kibosh upon someone.
>
> The Standard, London, November 27, 1834, page 4.
>
> [Begin Excerpt]Ah, said Smith, as he went out of the office, it vos the
> "Vigs" vot passed this bill, and vot the Duke of Vellington put the kibosh
> on 'em for, and sarve 'em right. It warnt nothin else than this here hact
> vot "floored" them.
> [End Excerpt]
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard/175858068/
>
> The act referred to was a recently enacted Chimney-Sweep Act, which made
> it illegal for chimney sweeps to hawk their services on the streets. The
> supposed reason for the act was to prevent the abuse of child labor as
> chimney sweeps. It was criticized for singling out chimney sweeps,
> effectively preventing their advertising their services, at least for
> small-time, independent operators.
>
> This example was reprinted in several other newspapers in other locations.
> It originally appeared in a local police report, but apparently the folksy
> criticism of whig politics drew the attention of the other outlets.
>
> Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, Leicester,
> January 23, 1835, page 4.
>
> [Begin Excerpt]The late First Lord of the Admiralty puts what Bill Ingilby
> calls the "kibosh" upon the Whig lies respecting the perfect union and
> harmony of Earl Grey's Ministry.
> [End Excerpt]
>
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/leicester-journal-and-midland-counties/175857890/
>
> The First Lord Admiralty at the time was Lord Auckland, who had been in
> office since at least July 1834, and remained in office until replaced in
> about September 1835, when he was appointed Governor General of India.
>
> The Morning Chronicle, London, May 15, 1835, page 4.
>
> [Begin Excerpt]Myers: Please you, my Lord, I an't no such a thing [as a
> naturalized Jew], and I never vas naturalized. They says so to rise the
> kibosh against me, and my vive, vot I vas a valking mid, vhen they comes
> down upon us. Ve goes reglar to the synagogue, and the gentlemen knows it.
> . . .
> Myers: I dont think I can swear [that they struck me]; but they gets other
> Jews to give me the kibosh upon me, and it's all the same to me which of
> the whole set struck me.
> [End Excerpt]
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-chronicle/175873689/
>
>

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